New Dawn
by Sprattfish33
Summary: AU: Symbiotes have conquered Earth and the survivors are separated into three groups. Here we will meet humans turned beasts and manufactured monsters. Come one, come all true believers. This one's gonna be bumpy
1. Chapter 1

People often expect some sort of magical answer to the really big problems that appear. A knight in shining armor, or a great army appearing to save the day. Perhaps it's a disease that is killing everyone and somehow, they discover the cure and save everyone and usher into a happy ending.

But often enough, that isn't the case. Sometimes we have to watch as everything and everyone we know and love burns around us, and feeling the crushing despair of not being able to do anything about. Or, we accept that we can't do anything about it and move on. But some people just won't let go. And this can lead to very disasterous results. Who am I you ask? I gave up the meaning of names a long time ago. Besides, in my world, you don't want anyone to know your name. I live my life on the run, because if you don't run, either they find you, or someone else does. And the results aren't good any which way. Because here, people will kill you and cannibalize you. Just to stay alive. My world is one ruled by fear and desperation. One where if you stop to save someone, you both die. One that no matter how hard you try, you can't wake up from the nightmare. And sometimes, you are the nightmare

Cold, empty, soul sucking. Many words can be used to define space, but no one had expected this. 3:27 am. A research facility is observing a meteor hurtling towards earth. Many simply expected it to burn up in the atmosphere, but to contrary belief, it actually crashed into a large sand dune in a desert. A recovery team was immediately dispatched to retreive the metoerite before someone else did. The process was completed without a hitch and the team returned it to the facility. The lead scientist immediately began to examine it.

"First, we need to see if there is any sort of valuable mineral or element within the stone."

The scientist brought a large machine forward and flipped a few switches. A purple light shone forth and began to wash over the meteorite. A cable ran from the machine to a large computer, which automatically did the math and graphing to determine if there was anything of value within, and what it might be. The scientist walked over to the moniter and looked at the readings. However, they only proved to be more intriuging. The results showed completely random spikes at differing levels. The computer was indicating that this pattern was not behaving like any known element, or any inanimate object for that matter. So what was inside that rock?

The answer came quickly and terrifyingly, as a cracking sound began to be heard from the meteorite. All the assistants and scientists began to back away from the lump of stone as it broke open, and a strange gelatinous substance spilled out, onto the table. One of the assistants causiously approached it with an examination tool and hesitantly prodded the goo. immediately it sprang to life, shooting up the tool, onto her hand, and proceding to engulf her entire body. Her screams were drowned out by the many others who were running in terror, trying to escape the lab. As they ran down the hall, one of the scientists triggered the evacuation alarm, signalling everyone in the lab bolt for it. Soon the entire building was empty. Save one.

The former assistant was wrapped in a inky black cocoon that ocasionally pulsed like a heartbeat. Short seconds later, the cocoon was absorbed by the aforementioned assistant to reveal a humanoid creature with skin the same inky black as the cocoon, clawed hands, large muscles, strange white eyes shaped something like half of the ying yang, and a maw of razor sharp teeth. It surveyed the room and took a step forward. It stopped. It raised it's arms and tendrils of black goo shot out of it's body, creating pod-like constructs along the walls. Once it was done in the examination room, it stepped out and began to spray the strange goo all over the facility. The construction of it's nest had begun.

It is now a year later, and the world is in chaos. The nest has expanded. It now covers a quarter of a kilometer in diameter. It is much taller. A sort of throne has been erected in the center, where the first creature, now dubbed the "Queen", spends it's days. The world's armies have sent strike teams to destroy the nest, but they never come out. Instead, they become hosts and slaves to the offspring of the first one. Heavy artillary has no effect on the nest. Symbiotes, they have been dubbed. They find a host and take control of it. Mind, body, and soul. You can never escape it once it gets hold of you. However, they seem content to stay within their nest and wait. Whatever the reason, no one is complaining. But that all changed too.

Two years after the crash. The Symbiotes have begun attacking cities. Many of them bare a different insignia on their chest and sported different colours, but how this is done is unknown. What is known however, is that the symbiotes can absorb another of their species into their mass, and transport it from location to location. This allowed them to keep assimilating more hosts and make more nests. It was also plain to see that they were evolving as time went on. They had already built up an immunity to explosive projectiles and were apparently adapting to take local fauna as hosts. This may have explained the insignia on the chests of the host humans. A symbol to represent the first host the symbiote had. It was discovered though, that high frequencies caused them pain, but the problem was their sheer numbers. They never killed. Instead, they would pin their victims to the wall with some of their mass and wait for another symbiote to take the human as a host. Their numbers were growing steadily and steeply. Finally, the governments of earth decided to instead of fight the threat, to retreat from it.

They all pooled their resources together and built a massive wall and a city behind. Afterwards, they constructed a sonic projector to create a bubble of sonics around the settlement, protecting everyone within the walls from the dangers they faced. But, they now faced a grim reality. They could not save everyone. The world's remaining humans had three months to reach the walls before they were closed for eternity. Anyone who didn't make it was worse than dead. The city was designed to accomodate ten million people. Only one million made it. And so the gates were shut, never to open again. The remainder of the population outside was doomed to eventual assimilation.

However, some took the horse by the reins and figured out that they needed to get on the move. And these people are now known as world runners. They never look back and never stop running. They keep on the move and ahead of the flood. They were the first survivors.

Now our story catapults forward hundreds of years. The amount of hosts is dwindling and the number of symbiotes are now fixed. Most of the hostless symbiotes roam the ruins of cities. Skyscrapers are covered in vines and ivy. Some even have large trees growing up through the middle of said skyscrapers. The world runners are still around an are more numerous than before. They have developed the techniques to stay undetected by their hunters, but are still caught on a 50/50 ratio. The remainder of those who didn't learn to stay ahead of the symbiotes formed packs and stalked the land in search of food. Their intelligence lowered to the level of a beast, with a single minded goal of locating sustanense. They will kill anyone and anything in there way, but the sight of a symbiote sends them running in fear.

And this, my friends, is where our story begins. In this land ruled by fear and desperation to survive. In this ignorance of the inside towards the outside. The fact that they never bothered to look at the outside and see the tormented people who live in the ninth circle of hell.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello my lovely readers, and thank you for having a gander at my story. I will be leaving a description of my characters at the end of the chapter, so don't hate. Drop a review as well plz?**

* * *

The Rippers had been chasing him for an hour now and he was starting to wear out. He knew he should have gone the long way around, but he had noticed a hosted symbiote down that path and knew that he would have a way tougher time getting past that thing as opposed to outrunning a band of Rippers. However, they were making lots of noise. And noise was a bad thing. Very bad indeed.

He vaulted a broken divider and swiftly slid across the hood of a car. He needed to find a decent hiding place that was also easy to escape. He pulled a knife from the pocket of his tattered running shorts just in case, and skidded underneath a shadowed outcropping of concrete. Just as he suspected. There was a large hole underneath it, indicating there was a stash of goods here. Something to distract them with. He quickly sifted through the things that would be most useful to him, threw the items he didn't need into a large sack and hurled said sack out into the open. He then turned the corner and kept sprinting.

"That should give me five minutes if I'm not lucky. It should get them to stop altogether if I am."

Five minutes was all he needed to get out of the city and into the open plains. The only animal life you were inclined to find out here were rodents and the occasional wild cat. Symbiotes favoured areas with lots of shadows and nooks to wait for a potential host to come along unsuspectingly. Even still, occasionaly they would transverse the plains to go to a forest, where lots of world runners and Rippers hid caches of supplies. Or they went there to expand a nest. It was very rare was it to find one roaming the plains.

Ethan stopped for a break. His breaks usually consisted of five minute of eating stale bread and drinking old water from a dented waterbottle. First rule of survival in this world was that you take what you get. He stopped and looked up. On the horizon was the old settlement that protected all that were within. He had mixed feelings about the place. On one hand, it was protecting millions from the horrors of the outside world, but on the other, they never took the risk of letting people from the outside in, due to fear of them unknowingly playing host to a symbiote. He understood their logic, but they forgot that the sonic shield would protect them from that. It was paranoia. A fear that only the guards along the wall lived with. No one else knew of the dangers of the world as those who witnessed it first hand.

Ethan had been born into a world of fear an chaos. He had been taught from the beginning that to survive the storm, you needed to stay ahead of it. He'd watched people being killed, then eaten and outran hosted symbiotes when occasion called. All of his experiences had molded him into who he was now.

He pushed those thoughts out of his head and packed his things back into his travel pack. Time to start running once more.

During the meantime, within the city, a heavy debate was being held in the court. Apparently, a symbiote host had managed to infiltrate the walls and was now hiding among them. The room was divided. Half of those in power were dismissing this as a rumor meant to spread hysteria and chaos throughout the city. Others believed this to be true, and demanded that the city be searched to the foundations. These debates were common. The paranoia stemmed from those who were in power and had seen the horrors of the outside during their duties as guards before all this. They believed that the symbiotes were hiding among them as they spoke and occasionally tried to kill someone in the room out of pure terror.

Not that anyone else in the town knew. As far as their knowledge went, the symbiotes were never going to penetrate the defences of the city. In fact, it had been nicknamed Helms Deep after J.R.R Tolkein's fictional fortress. Of course, people forgot that aforementioned fortress had indeed been penetrated, but it had required inside knowledge of the weaknesses of the walls.

The city itself was a combination of rustic and hyper-modern buildings. Technology was used o it's fullest, but there was still a feeling of welcome and comfort.

It was currently 3:30 pm, meaning that school was officially done for the day. Many of the classes were in some way related to defence of the city, but no one seemed to mind. However, there were a small handful of people who questioned what was known about the outside. They wondered why we made no attempts to find out more, to learn how to fight them. Instead, they were all taught common knowledge of how to drive them off. Those who strived to learn more were looked down upon. Shunned. But rare was it, to have one who was still in their teen years be a part of this small handful of people. Ana was her name.

Ana walked down the cobbled road towards the two story house where her family lived. She was thinking about history class. They had spent a vastly boring two hours learning about how the citizens dealt with those accused of being a host to a symbiote. First, they locked them in a chamber and bombarded them with sound to kill the symbiote if it was there. Should it not be, they would be thrown outside the walls out of sheer paranoia. The fear of these things was so great, that a parent would willingly exile their own child from the city in an attempt to keep the creatures out. More often than not, these people were simply interested in learning more about them and somebody who thought that they should be removed would start a rumor, or accuse them of being a host.

"Seemed a bit dramatic to me" Ana muttered to herself. She really didn't care much for the history of the town. She'd rather learn about the history of before the city was constructed than hear the same things that were forced into their heads since the moment they were able to understand their parents. Putting her mental groaning aside, she turned the knob to front door of her house and stepped inside. She didn't even bother stating she was home. Her parents probably weren't home yet anyway. Her mother worked in weapons development, trying to come up with new weapons to kill the symbiotes. She was an easy enough person to talk to. Her father was a patrolman, walking the walls surrounding the city. He always put on a cheerful smile whenever he was home, but in reality, he was broken. The images of the land outside the walls scared him deeply. The creatures he saw and the screams of unfortunate souls that were caught were enough to drive a man insane. Ana walked up the stairs to her room. It was rather small, with just enough room for a dresser, bed, nightstand, and writing desk.

She deposited her bag beside her nightstand and sat down at her desk. She pulled a semi-old laptop out from a drawer on the desk and began to do research on symbiotes like she had been for a about half a year. She was still very much afraid of them, but the more she learned about them, the less frighting they seemed. She opened an article about how a wave of symbiotes once attempted to breach the walls, not knowing about the sonic field that barred their way. needless to say, they didn't get the welcome they were expecting. Half of them died, along with their hosts, and the rest simply retreated back to their various nests.

"I wonder if their are any other weaknesses they have..." She whispered to herself. She closed the article and began searching again.

Night was approaching. Ethan raced through the streets, leaping and sliding over obstacles. He had, in his typical luck, managed to walk head first into a building controlled by Rippers. Now, he was trying his best to outrun the screaming mob behind him. He really wished they'd keep quiet. The screaming was bound to attract the next wave of nasties in a few minutes. However, he was already tuckered out from a hard day of running and wouldn't be able to use any diversions he had for they would only encourage the symbiotes to come after him. And as good as he was at running, he was running on empty and had only barely escaped a symbiote when he was fully rested and ready to go. It seemed that tonight was going to be his last unless he could ditch these obnoxiously loud creatures and find a decent cover.

He saw his chance. A large building with thick vines growing out of it. He rushed through a hole in the structure and began to climb for his life. He could here the mob screaming as they approached the building. He muttered something to do with uncivilized behaviour and leapt to safety on the third floor. Then, he heard the sound of vines being tugged. They were climbing up after him. He cursed and found another vine and snaked his way up. Hopefully they would stop at the third. moving as quickly and as silently as possible, he darted to another vine. He reached the top, then cursed again. There was another, smaller group of Rippers, sleeping peacefully on the ground. He slowly backed up and began shimmying up another vine. He was halfway, when a bloodcurdling scream broke out a floor and a half down. Instantly, the Rippers below him opened their eyes. Ethan held his breath and finished the climb.

"Hopefully, they'll start fighting and kill each other off." He whispered to himself. He was almost right. Three Rippers noticed the vine shaking and began to climb up to investigate. In the meantime, the rest of them had begun fighting each other in a brutal battle to the end. Ethan cast his eyes around. There was no holes, no vines, nothing. He was trapped. He spun around, hearing the shuffling of the Rippers slowly climbing up the vine towards his corner. This was it. He drew his knife for a last stand.

At least, that was the plan, until he was suddenly yanked from the ground, towards the ceiling, and pretty much glued upside down to said ceiling. He cast his eyes about frantically, trying to shake loose. But the sheer exhaustion coupled with his sudden fright was causing him to black out. In the short seconds before he lost conciousness, He realized exactly what had happened.

He had just been caught by a symbiote.

**Hopefully you read the story first before skipping here. Anyway, here's the descriptions.**

**Ethan: 16 years old, 5.7 currently, black hair, green eyes.**

**Ana: 16 years old, 5.5 currently, black hair, blue eyes.**

**Also, Rippers are people who went mad after the conquering and have mentally become beasts.**


	3. Chapter 3

Ana was in a particularly foul mood. She had been called down to the office because she was accused of passing notes. It took her half an hour to prove she was innocent, and by that point, the classroom was already coming up with wise cracks. She spent the rest of the day trying to find a way to get back at the accuser and trying to find a way to escape the annoying aforementioned wise cracks. The only upside was that she managed to escape history when school was for some unknown reason, ended early. She spent the rest of the day roaming the streets and catching up on homework. She was mentally cursing the numbskull who had decided to pin the transgression on her in every way she could imagine.

She looked up and noticed it was starting to get late. The sun was already setting. She didn't really care though. Her parents always had to work late. She threw her belongings into her bag and began the walk home. She looked out at the sky beyond the walls, wondering what was out there.

* * *

Ethan groggily woke up to the sun beating down on his face. He slowly pushed himself upright and rubbed his eyes. Suddenly, the events of the previous night hit him like a mightning bolt.

_"Ah, your awake. I was becoming concerned."_

Ethan spun his gaze from side to side, looking for the strange voice.

_"Down here."_

Ethan cast his gaze down and saw a symbiote on the ground, a single tendril connected to his foot. His heart leapt into his throat.

_"Calm down. I'm not going to harm you."_

Ethan began to slowly back away. The symbiote remained perfectly still. Finally, the tendril disconnected from his foot.

_Okay... I'm really confused now._

The symbiote remained perfectly still. It seemed to be waiting for something. Ethan watched it cautiously. Finally, he decided to try talking to it.

"So, based on what I've observed so far, your species would normally take a human as a host at first opportunity. Why have you left me alone?"

The inky black goo made what he equated to be an exhasperated shrug. Then he realized.

"You can't talk to me unless we have physical contact right?"

The blob made a sort of motion that vaguely resembled a nod. Ethan thought for a second.

"I can't believe I'm doing this."

He lowered his hand to the symbiote and let it extend tendrils to meet it.

_"Well, you certainly catch on quick. And to answer your questions, our two species are more alike than you think. For example, we are all different in some way."_

Ethan took several moments to digest this information.

"So, you aren't going to turn me into a fanged monster of hellish terror?"

_"Correct."_

He spent a few more minutes digesting this new info, then asked another question.

"Are there others like you, who don't force themselves on a host?"

There was a short pause.

_"Yes. The politically correct term for the majority of my species is Overlord. The rest of us are known simply as Abberations. We seek partnership. Not dominance."_

Yet another useful piece of information. But there was one last thing that was unanswered.

"Why did you save me last night?"

_"I thought you would appreciate some help. Besides, we've gotten along so far."_

Ethan thought about it for a minute. It was true, they did seem to understant each other so far. But he was still a bit uneasy about this. The symbiote noticed.

_"I completely understand why you are uneasy around me. But that is another reason I saved you. To begin making amends for what has happened."_

_A symbiote with a sense of morality. Guess the world is full of surprises._

"So, what now."

The symbiote seemed caught off guard by the question. It was silent for a few minutes before answering.

_"That's up to you. I believe we would make a good team, but that's not for me to decide. This is your choice, and yours alone."_

Decisions were something that Ethan had been taught to make quickly. And this one had to have been made quickly, for at that precise moment, A hosted symbiote had just finished scaling the building. Ethan noticed this immediately and realized that they were surrounded. Three more had appeared on all sides.

"Considering that the alternative is to be enslaved by a different symbiote, knock yourself out!" He shouted. Immediately the goo leapt into action. It snaked it's way up his legs, over his chest, and over his arms. It formed a sort of mask with the same eyes as the other symbiotes, but with no crazy mouth. A medium-dark grey spider logo materialized on his chest. The Strength that the symbiote was providing was unbelievable

"Okay, can you give me an instantaneous breakdown of what I can do now?"

A split second later, a flood of information surged through his brain. After he finished absorbing that knowledge, he leapt into action.

He shot a cord of what appeared to be black webbing from his wrist. It snagged on of the enslaved hosts, which he then proceded to swing in a wide circle, clubbing another host in the head, sending it hurtling off the edge of the building. After releasing the cord, he threw a punch at the next one, knocking it clean out. The final one hissed at him, unsure of how to attack. So, Ethan solved the problem in a flash. He shot two web cords at it's feet, then yanked them backwards, causing it to fall over. He then leapt into the air, and hurtled down for a powerful kick. The thing was sent straight through the concrete, and down to the lower levels.

"Well, that takes care of them." Ethan muttered. The symbiote seemed impressed.

_"You've mastered some of your abilities within mere seconds. We do indeed work well as a team"_

Ethan stopped and examined the scene before him.

"Looks like we're clear."

Ethan walked over to the ledge and sat down.

"I sometimes wonder what it was like before everyone fled behind that sonic shield."

The symbiote merely gave a mental shrug.

_"I wouldn't know."_

"Well, seeing as your already here, I don't see any problems with you sticking around."

_"Very well"_

The two spent the majority of the rest of the day discussing their next move.

"Even if we can beat a few of them, we still have to consider that they'll come after us in bulk. Our best move would be to begin moving to another abandoned city.

_"Your idea does make sense. I guess that's settled."_

Ethan nodded, threw his pack over his shoulders, then made a flying leap from the top of the building. He plummeted for a few seconds, then fired a web line and began a slow decent. Soon enough, he was on the ground.

"Time to start running again."

And so, the two new friends sprinted off towards the plains, away from the crumbling remains of a human civilization.

* * *

Ana closed the door to her house and slumped against the wall. She was starting to consider dropping out of school due to terminal boredom and jackasses who thought that someone's misery was funny. The fact that many people around school still thought she passed a note were teasing her for "getting caught", or simply staring at her. It was rather annoying. Especially since it was a regular occurance for someone to pass a note.

"Really. The level of immaturity in that place is astounding." Ana grumbled to herself as she stormed up to her room. She threw her things onto her bed and sat down at her desk, hoping that some research would get the events of the day off her mind. She had just finished logging in to her laptop when the phone rang. The call was from her father. Ana became confused. Her father never called from work unless he needed her to do something. She picked up the phone and pressed talk.

"Ana? Are you there?" Her father asked in a winded voice.

"Yeah dad, I'm here. Why are you calling?" She asked in a concerned voice.

"Listen, you have to find a place to hide, now! Someone broke into the main generator and is threatening to shut off the sonic shield!"

Ana's blood ran cold. That shield was their first and only true line of defence. If a symbiote got through, it could carry more with it and begin assimilating the population within. Many believed that they were the last free humans left in the world. She hoped that they were wrong, for they might be humanity's last hope.

"I'll be okay dad! Just don't get yourself killed!" Ana hung up the phone and shot out the front door.

She darted through the streets looking for a good place to hide in. Finally, she came to the library. It was large and had dozens of good hiding places. It also had a good view of the generator so she could see what was happening. She began to seek out the best spot. After careful observation, she spotted it. A storage area on the third floor of the library that overlooked the generator. She could see transports of soldiers heading towards it with everyone aboard.

"They certainly understand the weight of the situation." Ana murmered to herself.

At the exact same time, a squad had gone into the building to prevent the lowering of the shield. They were all armed with sonic rifles and pistols, just in case the maniac was actually a human host. Then, they heard the sound they all dreaded. A red strobe light began to flash and a siren activated. The shield was down.

Outside, panic was ruling the streets. Everyone was trying to hide from the potential menace that could be passing the border guard as they spoke. The military had split into two groups. One to guard the generator, and one to defend the city. Two more squads entered the building, praying to anyone that they were not too late. Suddenly, the sound of gunshots tore through the silence in the facility. One of the men dropped, and the rest began to fire their sonic guns down the hall. They heard someone wailing about an earsplitting sound. They immediately drew their pistols and fired. The wailing stopped. They found a man lying dead on the ground, a pool of blood slowly forming around him. strapped to his chest was a bomb, with a detonator in his hand. They quickly disarmed it and located the control room. After some tinkering, they managed to get the shields back online. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief. But this had been to close a call. Were they truly safe?

A black shape stalked stealthily through the streets. Lithe, yet muscled, it hissed silently to itself. The pain it had endured to enter had been great, but worth it. This was the perfect place to begin a new nest. But it had to be silent about it. Discovery would get it no where. For now, it had to wait and plan. It slunk out of the light, and began searchin for the perfect place to observe and hide until the moment was most opportune. Unbeknownst to it, however, it was not unnoticed. A dark blue mass of goo with black tinges silently slimed after it, determined to keep up.


	4. Chapter 4

**Greetings oh readers. This is a chapter update since I accidentally added the wrong chapter. Yeeeeeah... BUT ITS FIXED HUZZAH! ENJOY!**

Ethan sprinted across the plain, heading towards a massive collection of buildings in the distance. The strength he had gained from the symbiote had increased his running speed dramatically. Off to the side of his vision was a sign that had the words " N RA IS O" written on it.

"Guess some of the letters were worn away with time." Ethan wondered allowed. The symbiote didn't respond. It seemed rather lost in thought, as if something was bothering it.

"Hey, something on your mind?" The symbiote quickly came back to reality.

_"Last night, when your were resting, I detected the cries of several hosted Overlords. They were chattering about a 'wall of pain' being lifted. Whatever they were talking about, They certainly were excited about it. After several minutes, they began shrieking about being too late."_

Ethan pondered the statement for several minutes as he ran. Then it hit him. How come he didn't realize it sooner?!

"The sonic shield must have dropped for a brief window of time, which would have allowed them to get into the city behind it and the wall!"

The temperature seemed to drop several degrees. If just one of those things got through, something bad could happen. Something very, very bad indeed.

_"As much as I hate to admit it, we can't do anything about it now. We have to keep moving."_

Ethan reluctantly achknowledged the fact and continued his sprint towards the crumbling remains of a once magnificent city.

* * *

The city was more high strung than ever before. Citizens leapt at the slightest movement in the shadows, soldiers patrolled the the streets day and night, and many families had established a curfew. The night watch had increased hours and R&amp;D was working double time in both energy and hours. Everyone was working nonstop.

This included Ana's parents, thus making it so that she rarely saw her parents. They called her every night at ten thirty sharp to make sure she was okay, then were forced back to work. Ana felt more alone than ever. She knew that her parents had no choice but to work these hours, but it still hurt. She absentmindedly turned on the stove and placed a pot of canned soup on the heating element. She placed her laptop on the dining room table and did some research while she waited for the soup to simmer.

She spent five minutes studying an article that someone had written about symbiotes and their strange ability to absorb the powers of their first host, meaning that if it was hosted by a spider, it would gain the ability to stick to walls and create webbing for it's host. Another example showed a sketch of one with large ears like a wolf's as well as a highly developed nose. It seemed farfetched, but it was fact in the textbook her school provided.

"At least it was good for something." She muttered as she closed the article and ladled the soup into a bowl. She finished it in five minutes and decided to go take a walk. She threw on a thin coat and stepped into the dying light of dusk. The patrol in her end of the city had ended a few minutes ago. The soldiers wouldn't bother her at this hour. She walked for about half an hour, then observed that it was getting rather dark and decided to take a shortcut home.

* * *

Ethan was fighting the urge to whoop as he shot through the air after catapulting himself off a webline. He never, in a million years thought he would travel like this. Soaring through the air using the webbing the symbiote formed to swing from building to building. He swung into a wide ark and landed solidly on his feet in a crumbling away section of a building. The symbiote covering his face retreated and he breathed in a long breath of fresh air.

"That is the only way to travel!"

The symbiote simply gave a sort of 'mental smile'. It still seemed bothered by the fact that the sonic shield had shut down a few days ago. It was bothering Ethan too, but as the symbiote had pointed out earlier, they wouldn't be able to do anything about it for now. So, he just leapt off the building and fired a webline, content to quickly search this city and get out.

_"The Overlords are getting restless." _The symbiote stated. Ethan looked down and saw several multicolored shapes moving through the streets. Black seemed to be the trend here, but he could make out two red ones, a green one, a blue one, a camo one, and a few others. The most visible however, was a strange one with tiger stripes.

"Any of those ones Abberations?"

_"No. Abberations normally don't find human hosts. I suppose you could say I was lucky."_

Ethan decided to think about that later. He had to keep them airborne at the moment. He shot another webline and stayed focused on the task at hand.

It took them fifteen minutes to reach a spot where he suspected there was a cache. He was right. It was a food cache. Lots of heavily salted meat and a few cans of various meals. He threw some of it into his pack and took to the skies once more. Finally, he noticed it was getting late, so he got onto a rooftop of a building with a tree growing out of it. He collected a few dead branches and vines and built a smalled fire. The symbiote retreated from his hands, feet, and head, making Ethan ask why.

_"Fire is very bad for me"_ It muttered, shuddering.

"You can hop off for a while if you want."

The symbiote declined, simply deciding to retreat from the places most likely to be exposed to the fire. Ethan warmed a piece of cold, dry meat over the fire and popped it into his mouth. It was tasteless and tough. typical food for world runners. After finishing his meal, he doused the flames with some shards of concrete and laid down on his left side to sleep, trusting the symbiote to take over if something went wrong.

* * *

Ana rounded a corner, just a block and a bit away from home. The sun had just vanished from the horizon. It was almost ten o'clock. She didn't want to miss the call from her parents. She had just turned another corner when she stopped cold.

A large humanoid creature with large muscles was standing with it's back to here. It was solid black and had claws, strange white eyes, and a maw of two inch long teeth and a massive, grotesque tongue. It was holding an unconcious man in it's claws, appearing to be unsure of what to do next. Ana took a step back. It was a hosted symbiote. One had gotten through the shield.

It raised it's head to the air, it's tongue slashing about. It's eyes appeared to clench, as if it was angry. It hissed as a glob of dark blue goo oozed out of hiding, waving tendrils around. Another symbiote. The creature pinned it's captive to the wall and sprayed a large amount of a gelatinous substanse from it's hand, pinning the poor man to the wall. His head lolled to the side. Ana silently hoped that he was still alive.

The hosted symbiote advanced on the blue one, claws outstretched. It swung it's arm around for a wicked slash. The blue one simply slid back and lashed out with it's tendrils, which while strong, were only making the black one more infuriated. It lashed out with a mariad of tendrils of it's own, throwing the other symbiote against the wall. Ana took another step backwards. And in all typicallness, she stepped on something that made a noise. Alerted to her presence, the black one turned around, it's fangs bared, hissing. It stalked forward, it's claws outstretched.

Then it stopped. It seemed to be tugging at something, like it was being restrained. Ana then saw why. The dark blue tendrils of the other symbiote were wrapped around it's chest, arms, and legs, preventing it from moving. The blue one whipped it's tendril's back and threw the black one against the wall. Ana began to slowly back up and tripped over a crack in the ground. She stumbled back and hit her head on a wall. She held her head and fell forward. In her last moments of conciousness, she saw the two symbiotes locked in stalemate, trying to push the other off balance.

* * *

Ethan lay resting on the concrete roof of the building. The symbiote noted that he was sleeping on his left and never shifted position. It had noticed this behaviour whenever he was laying down to rest. It decided to ask about that later. Suddenly, a screeching sound, only audible to symbiotes tore through the air. It was far away, but understandable.

_"Traitor! Shame of our kind! Coward!" _The voice shrieked. Then, it all went silent. Almost too silent. The symbiote strained it's reception, but recieved no more words.

_"I better tell the boy when he wakes up."_

The sun had barely risen when the symbiote woke Ethan up. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and surveyed the landscape. Nothing had changed.

"Guess we better get out of the city and put a foot to the earth." Ethan told himself.

_"I heard the rage of an Overlord last night. It appears he was either knocked out or killed. I believe it was directing it's anger at an Abberation"_

Ethan paused to file this information away for a later date.

"Lets discuss this on the move." Ethan replied, then leapt off the building into a dive. At about half way to the ground, he fired a webline and began swinging his way towards the plains on the opposite side of the city. He planned to loop around and check on the sonic field to see if it was still functional. The symbiote said nothing, prefering to piece together the puzzle of what the Overlords were so excited about.

Ethan had just reached the outskirts of the ruins. He swung in low and flipped to the ground, taking off at a run. Running was natural to him. It was what he was born into the world of. But he had a strange feeling that there would be more than running in the near future. But for now, it was a long dirt path before them.

"So how come Abberations don't get hosts?"

_"We are looked down upon and considered defects of the gene pool. Hosts are often captured by creatures who have already aquired a host and bring it back to a nest to give it to another symbiote. Abberations are often killed or forced out of a nest. I was lucky to escape with my life. I spent three weeks in that city, wondering if I was to remain that way forever. Now, why don't you tell me why you always sleep on your left side?"_

Ethan shrugged.

"It protects my heart."

The symbiote remained silent. It was actually a smart idea, but rather simple.

* * *

Ana felt like her head had been hit with a sledge hammer. She opened her eyes slowly and pushed herself upright. She suddenly remembered in her last moments of conciousness. She sat up and looked around.

She was in her room.

Ana looked about, trying to see if anything was out of place. After several minutes of inspection, she paused to answer the phone. It was her father, doing the nightly check-in. By this point, she had decided that she must have bumped her head on the backboard of her bed before lying down for a nap, explaining what she saw as a dream.

"Hey dear, is everything okay?" He asked in the concerned parent voice.

"Nothing to report dad." She replied, trying to convince her dad and herself that everything was alright.

"Okay, love you." He spoke, then hung up. Ana placed the phone back in it's cradle.

"Love you too dad." She whispered to herself, before crawling back into bed and dozing off.

Meanwhile, a patrol was inspecting a nearby back alley, checking in on a reported disturbance in said alley. They rounded a corner and all of them felt the blood leave their face. A man, unconcious, was plastered to the wall with some sort of goo. They cut him loose and ran a sonic cleanser over him to insure that he was not a host. Once they were certain that he was safe, they took him to the police station to question him about what happened, but all they could get out of him were three words.

"Black. Teeth. Tongue. Black. Teeth. Tongue. Black. Teeth. Tongue."

These three words however, told them exactly what they had all feared.

A symbiote had gotten within the shield and the wall.


	5. Chapter 5

Sunday. A day hated by most as it signifies that the weekend is over and that your daily lives will resume. Children will be off to school, Adults will be off to work, and the general labour of five sevenths of our week is spent. This doesn't apply to outside the walls of the safe haven constructed so many decades ago, but in an attempt to resume a normal life, people within keep using it.

But many are in a deep fear that those days may come to an end, for just hours ago, proof arrived that there was indeed a symbiote hiding somewhere in the city, and that it was attacking victims. Even more than ever, people stared terrified at one another. Even at their own loved ones. They shrieked in terror if something brushed their shoulder. They carried weapons on their persons at all times.

The weapons development branch of the city's research facility was being thrown into overdrive. Everyone knew that if they could capture a live specimin, it could greatly increase the speed of their research. On the other hand, they knew that every moment the symbiote spent within the city increased the chances it would create a nest, thus creating more symbiotes and eventually enslaving the entire city.

However, what was not known, was that there was another symbiote roaming the dark alleys. Not known that is, but to one.

Ana had been convinced that what she had seen was just a nightmare she had when she had been sleeping, but the proof was there in black and white. She had seen it with her own eyes. But that wasn't the part that scared her. What scared her was that there was another symbiote on the loose. This one didn't seem hostile towards humans thus far, but the fact was, she had seen it and that black one fighting. She had seriously considered running to the authorities and telling them that she had been present at the fight scene, but she realized something.

If she told them what she saw, it would create a massive panic and possibly have her tried for lying if people accused her of it. Another thing was that she had witnessed the whole thing, and somehow ended up at home in bed. It spooked her. If she told the authorities, they might try to kill her under the pretense that she was hosting the symbiote. She had read about what happened to people who were accused of that, yet were innocent. She didn't want that to happen to her.

So, she kept her silence, hoping that they would find it before it was too late.

Instead, she devoted herself even more to her research, although she seemed to be hitting a dead end. She couldn't find anything else that she didn't already know about. It was starting to get frustrating. So, she copied all the notes she'd taken and stored them in a drawer, resolving to pick up where she left off. But for now, school was starting in ten minutes and she needed to move.

* * *

Ethan waited patiently, hunched on top of one of the few trees that dotted the massive plains between the forests and cities. A symbiote with a bear as a host had been pursuing him for close to an hour now, and finally he had the advantage. He didn't make a sound. Not even a breath. The strange creature was passing underneath him now, growling and sniffing the air.

Ethan decided to try out a trick the symbiote had told him the previous day. He extended his hand out in front of him, and before his eyes, it morphed into a two foot long, single edged blade.

_Wait for it... Wait for it... Now!_

He dropped out of the tree and sank the blade into the creature's skull, killing it instantly. He flipped off and continued his long run towards the shield. He had decided that since the symbiote had given him the power to fight back, he might want to keep an eye on the shield. Especially since the shield had dropped recently.

_"Be vigilant. With the recent drop of that shield you mentioned, the Overlords will be waiting for another such event to take place."_

Ethan silently acknowledged the symbiote's warning and found a small outcropping of rock, jutting out of a hill to set up camp, next to a small pond of clear water. He created a sort of "canvas" with webbing and built a small fire pit. After deciding that his camp was satisfactory, he began to search about for flat stones. After finding said rocks, he propped them up against the fire pit where the greatest heat was found. He then pulled out two strips of dried meat. He dunked them in the pond, added a small dash of salt to them, and threw them on the heated stone.

Fifteen minutes on the rocks had thoroughly fried. He ate them quickly, then took up a position on the hill to keep watch over the gate. The symbiote was correct. Every once and a while, a symbiote would slink by, keeping it's eyes trained on the shield, which was only visible by the distortions created by the ultrasonic bubble.

"Can you hear anything beyond the shield?"

The symbiote waited a few minutes before responding.

_"Faintly. The shield is causing a distortion of sound from within it, but I can confirm there is at least one in there. It's injured, but alive and it won't stay injured for long. We can mend the wounds of our hosts in minutes to days, depending on the type of wound it is. However, something inflicted by another host requires more time, as we grant out hosts the ability to leave traces of a special venom that slows the healing process of any creature down. For creatures with symbiote hosts, this is reduced to almost normal."_

"Woah, woah, hold the monologue. I can inject venom into people I attack? You do realize that you should have told me this sooner."

_"It only happens when you inflict damage with a sharp appendage. Blows of sheer force that deal only large bruises and broken bones will not poison victims. In other words, the bear host you defeated with that blade attack will have been injected with venom, but the creatures you defeated when we first bonded were not."_

"If I ever forget that, remind me."

Ethan waited on the hill, crouched in preparation to bolt forward if the shield dropped. He waited for several minutes, watching patiently as the sun dipped lower and lowed on the horizon. The symbiote and him had established a share in the responsiblities for watching. Ethan was the eyes, while the symbiote was the ears. Ethan felt much more safe with someone else watching his back.

* * *

Ana was starting to appreciate some aspects of the panic that the symbiote had induced. All her schoolmates were too terrified to go about their usual mockery of the odd students out. With them finally off her back, she could put a smaller margin of concentration towards her studies without sinking too low into the deep dull. At the end of the day, she took a path used often by the residents of the neighbourhood to get home. She brought her things up to her room and pulled out a book to read. She hadn't spent much time reading the books she had because of the pet project she had put on hold.

She had read three chapters when she decided to go get something to eat out of the pantry. After some consideration, she decided on instant pasta. She turned on the stove and placed the pot on the element. After that, she grabbed her book and lay down on the couch to wait for the water to boil.

Fifteen minutes later, she dropped the pasta into the boiling water and began the waiting game again. She slumped back on the couch and opened her book, but was interupted. The phone was ringing. Ana got up and checked the number. It was her mother.

"Hey mom, why are you calling? It's not even six'o clock."

"Honey, we were investigating the crime scene and discovered residual traces of symbiote mass, different from the samples we took from the wall. Another symbiote is within the shield."

Ana felt somewhat releaved. They had found out that the second symbiote was at large. She quickly masked her reaction with feigned surprise.

"What?! How?!"

Her mother sighed and continued.

"I don't know, but we're trying to find it. The samples of the gelatinous substance that was used to pin that poor man to the wall are really pushing our research forward. Soon, we'll have a way to track them. See you soon dear."

Ana turned the phone off and replaced it in it's cradle. She went back to the stove and checked the pasta, which was almost ready. She picked up her book and finished two more chapters before the pasta was ready.

After her meal, she went back upstairs to keep reading the book. She had read almost a quarter of the book when she realized that it was getting late. She slipped a scrap of paper in between the pages and went off to go through her evening rituals, unaware that something was out in the dark, looking for her.

* * *

A large, muscled shape silently crawled on all fours, like a beast, through the streets. It's massive tongue testing the air. It silently slinked into a slightly more lit alleyway and lowered it's head to the ground. It hissed, licking it's jaws. It was closing in on it's prey. That infernal meddler had seen the last of it's days, just as the witness would. It prowled onward, seeking a kill.

* * *

Ethan hadn't moved in hours. So far, the shield was running perfectly, and although he was still concerned about the functionality of the shield, he was also starting to get board and cramped. He had established a system for watching the shield in relation to how much time rest was required. He would keep an eye on the shield for two hours, then sleep for one. He also had small meals every one and a half hours of his watch. But now he was exeptionally bored

"Okay, I gotta work some of this out."

Ethan immediately began to do some sprinting in the general area to loosen his muscles and patrol the camp he had established. After he finished, he returned to where had been waiting before, his eyes focused on the shield, looking for anything that suggested a problem. The waiting game, oh how he was beginning to hate it.


	6. Chapter 6

**MORE BOLD DIALOGUE! PLEASE LOVE ME! Just kidding! I actually have a request. Story cover! I'm going to level with you. I suck at art. Like, really suck. Plus, I couldn't write this without readers to show interest in it! Now I would like to humbly request that you go one step further. I have a few rules for cover submissions. Well, there more of guidelines. If they don't cover all of them, it doesn't mean I won't use it. It just has a lower chance. **

**#1- I would like to see both Ethan and Ana in it. I don't really care how, whether or not they're in civvies or costume, epic battle pose or dramatic back to back, I don't care. Just please have both of them in there. Note that romantic will be on the very low end of the scope.**

**#2- I shouldn't have to say this, but since this is the internet we are talking about I'll say it anyway. NOTHING FILTHY OR DIRTY IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM! ****That's actually about it. P.M. me links to your submissions. I look forward to seeing if anyone will come up with anything and what it will be. But for now, please enjoy chapter 6! P.S. very old A/N at the bottom. Just a heads up**

The stocky build of the hosted symbiote silently slipped from alley to alley, tracking it's prey. It had given it the slip several hours ago, but now the alien was closing in on it's target. Just several more minutes until found it. Then, it would strike.

* * *

Ana rolled around in bed, restless. She had been trying to fall asleep for some time now, but she just wasn't tired. It was friday night and she wanted to get up early the next morning to visit the library first thing, but she just couldn't seem to fall asleep. It didn't help matters that there had been rumors of a shadowy figure stalking the back alleys of her neighbourhood. Her parents were worried sick and were trying to convince her to start carrying a weapon with her. She always said no, but the inky black of night wasn't helping matters. Finally, she dozed off and stayed that way.

Unbeknownst to her, a dark blue slime with black tinges slipped under the cracks of her closet and oozed up the wall. It sensed the enemy drawing near. Even if it could escape, it's hunter would attack the nearest living thing in the immediate area when it arrived out of fury at missing it's prey. There was not an option. It slipped across the wall and began to spread it's mass over the girl.

After she was completely covered, it solidified into a dark blue rubberlike costume with a black spider logo on the chest. The top legs wrapped over her shoulders and joined the legs of a similar logo on the back, while the second pair of legs wrapped under her armpits in a similar fashion. The two sets of lower legs repeated the pattern around her thighs. There were small splashes of black on her calfs, thighs, upper arms, forearms, fingers, and sides. the rest was dark blue. For the mask, if it could be called that, there were the signture white eyes of hosted symbiotes. Her hair was left uncovered.

The symbiote manuevered it's host to the window. Time was short.

* * *

Ethan sat perched in a tree, keeping an eye on the landscape. The symbiote had warned him that there was a small pack of Overlords not too far off, heading in their direction. He'd been waiting for about twenty minutes for them to appear so he could end them.

Then he saw them. All four of them were walking on their hands and feet. one of them was green and black and had no logo on it's chest, But it's claws were extra long. Behind it was a blue and silver one with a defined nose with vampiric teeth. flanking it's left was a what appeared to be hosted by a wolf with yellow and gray coloring, while the right was flanked by a creature with two sharp talons and a scorpion tail.

Ethan silently had the symbiote morph his hands into twin blades. He sat stock still until one of they were right below him. He dropped out of the tree and killed the ones in the middle each in a single downward stroke. He then spun his bladed hands upward to block a potential attack. The creatures had leapt away and were hissing and screeching at him. They charged, not bothering to protect themselves.

Ethan just sighed and calmly stepped out of the way, then brought both blades down in a hammer motion to finish them off.

"Really, I would have thought they were smarter than this." Ethan muttered as his hands returned to normal.

_"Overlords rarely see their kind being killed, less so by one of their own. Thus it drives them to rage much faster."_

"Obviously."

Ethan returned to the place he'd made camp a about a day ago. It was about midnight and he was starting to get tired. So far, the pack of Overlords was all he'd seen in terms of action and he was really starting to get frustrated with it. He'd spent his whole life to this point constantly on the move, so it wasn't in his nature to set up a semi permanent camp, and when he did, it was to wait out a group of nasties.

Suddenly, the symbiote piped up.

_"The Overlord within the walls is screaming about a coward slipping through it's fingers. It seemes that the Abberation it's after is proving difficult to catch."_

"Lets hope it stays that way. And doesn't it realize the those aren't it's fingers?"

Ethan walked up the hill and quickly surveyed the land, trusting the symbiote to detect unseen enemies. After he had surveyed a 360 around them, he sat down on the hill to wait out another night.

* * *

Ana was locked in a terrifying nightmare. She was running through a dark alley as the symbiote from several nights ago chased her. She rounded a corner and the thing didn't come behind her. She didn't stop running. She ran and ran until she came to her house. The door was torn off it's hinges. She rushed in and saw blood spattered all over the walls, along with claw marks. She walked through the house, nauseated. She slowly rounded the corner into the living room and grasped the wall for support. The furniture was torn apart. The walls were heavily scratched, and the ceiling riddled with holes the size of the symbiote's fingertips. But that wasn't the worst part. Her parents were collapsed on the ground, surrounded in a pool of their own blood. She felt tears well up in her eyes as she slowly lowered herself to the floor. Then she screamed.

* * *

Far off, deep underground in a complex of metal, a group of men and women sat around a large wooden table. They all were dressed in crisp suits and had a self assured air. One of them cleared his throat and began to speak.

"We all know why we are here. There has been a field breach and there is a Host within the wall and field. We are here to decide how to handle this threat."

One of the men immediately put his fist down on the table.

"We cannot stand idly by while that creature roams our city! We have to activate the Gorgon protocol now!"

A woman responded with in a calm and measured voice.

"The Gorgon protocol is not ready. The subjects are responding to violently to the serum, and we don't have enough armor sets to go around. We need more time. A week at least."

The second man snarled angrily.

"A week?! In that time, the Host could create a class two nest without being caught! We need to do something, NOW!"

that last outburst sent spittle over some of the table. The first man shook his head.

"If the Gorgon Protocol is not ready, we need to find another solution. Does anyone else have an idea?"

No one said anything. Several of them exchanged glances, but no one pitched an idea. The first man nodded his head.

"Since there is no other option available at the present time, we must activate the Gorgon protocol, regardless if it is ready or not. Are we agreed?"

The men and women slowly nodded.

"Good. Send the message and activate the suits."

One of the women detached from the group and walked down a hallway. She kept walking until she reached a large laboratory. Several scientists were bustling about. The woman walked up to one of the scientists and tapped him on the shoulder.

"The order is here. We're activating the Gorgon Protocol."

The scientist nodded once and walked over to a control panel in front of a set of large metal pods. He pressed several buttons and the pods opened to reveal a set of armor equipped with blades and a flamethrower on the right arm, a sonic blaster built into the left arm, and a short, single edged sword with and electrified blade.

"Send everyone you can. Hunt down the Host, and eradicate it with extreme prejudice."

Ethan was on patrol. He had nothing to do while he waited for another potential field drop, so he patrolled his camp site hour after hour, making sure no Overlords came near. All the while, he and the symbiote exchanged information to pass the time. It didn't help much. Ethan's life up to this point was go go go. It was against every principle he had been taught as a child to remain in one place. He was lucky he had survived this long. Normally children were caught in very short time. Then the symbiote went quiet. It was a few minutes before it spoke again.

"_There is an Overlord muttering the same word over and over again. Source. I think it's discovered how to turn off the sonic shield. If I was to guess how, I would say that it found a host with knowledge of how the shield works and killed it's previous host. This means..."_

"The shield is likely to drop again."

**Hello, anyone who was patient enough to wait for me to upload this chapter! I aplogize for the massive gap between uploads, but creativity decided to take an extremely extended vacation. BTW, the Gorgon armor is based largely off of Harry Osborn's goblin armor from Spider Man 3. Don't hate! I kinda liked that movie. Sure, it had problems (More that it should have) But I still liked it. Also, the part where Peter is doing the stupid 'cool' montage is a great scene BECAUSE you hate it. The studio wants you to hate it.**

**'Till next time!**


	7. Chapter 7

_**Creativity: Can I have a break? I'm tired.**_

_**Me: You took around a year to get back from vacation! Get back on the wheel and run you lazy bugger! (Motions to giant intricate wheel for pet rodents) **_

_**Creativity: What do I look like to you? A hamster? **_

_**Me: What a swelligant idea! (Closes eyes and Creativity becomes hamster)**_

_**Creativity. Not. Funny.**_

_**Me: Shut up and run. I've got readers to address.**_

_** Hello dear readers, and thank you for putting up with my less than standard updates. Also, I want to apologize for the chapters seeming a bit repetitive. Sometimes I feel that I need to cut back to my two main characters to keep the story moving, but there isn't much I can work with. But hopefully, that problem is behind us, so without further ado, I present chapter 7! **_

A tall, beefy man in a bowler hat and three piece suit stood on a balcony overlooking a large room below. His beady eyes making sure to sweep the room thoroughly. Below him were several musclebound men and women wearing shiny new Gorgon class battle armor. They all stood in neat rows, the face plates all pulled back, Their faces as stiff as stone. They all had they're Gorgon issue glider boards clutched in their right hands and were all facing a large door. Then, the lights went out and were almost instantly replaced by red. The door split open and the first row mounted their gliders and took off, and were followed short seconds later by the second row. The hunt was on.

* * *

A large shadow slipped through the dark streets, unnoticed by anyone. It paused for a second as a car drove by, then quickly and stealthily scaled the wall behind it. The air was fresher above the darkened alley. A drool covered tongue slipped out from between a set of razor sharp teeth, testing the air. After some time, it turned and leapt across the street without a sound. It hissed to itself, closing in on it's destination. A sudden high pitched whine filled the air and the shadow quickly slipped into the comforting darkness of another back alley. It peaked out from it's hiding place and saw several shapes streak past roughly thirty feet in the air. It waited until they were gone, then cautiously continued onward.

A gorgon protocol soldier, followed closely by five others surveyed the ground below him, his mask's HUD relaying everything to him. An infrared filter revealed that there was no target in the area.

* * *

"This is Cobra leader to base repeat, Cobra leader to base. We've completed the first sweep and have nothing to report."

There was a short pause before a response came back

"Roger Cobra leader, head to the south quadrant and perform a standard sweep. Medusa team has already finished their sweep of the area, so anything that they might have missed could be picked up by you."

"Acknowledged."

The gorgon troopers took of to the south quadrant, completely missing a mysterious shape on the roof of a rundown building behind them. It watched for a few seconds then walked semi hazardly out of sight.

* * *

"Where am I?"

Ana's eyes opened groggily as she tried to recall what happened. Suddenly, she remembered the nightmare and became immediately alert. Then she realized that she was hanging upside down from a blue cable connected to the tallest building in the city. She screamed and let go of the web and started to fall, but her right hand and her feet shot out, seemingly of their own accord and began clinging to the window. She slowly peered at her reflecting to see she was completely encased in a blue and black costume that was composed of some sort of rubbery material. But most unsettling was the mask. The mask over her face was strikingly close to that of the face of a hosted symbiote, minus the maw of two and a half inch long fangs and the eyes appearing to be less insane. She knew the truth, even if she didn't want to believe it. She was now the host of a second symbiote within the shield. What confused her though, was that she seemed to still be in control of her body and that she had the aforementioned lack of death jaws. She raised her arm to test the level of control she had as well as get a better look at the costume. Most of her arm was covered in blue, but she had several lines of black entertwined around her arms and the spaces between her fingers. She also noticed that she felt stronger. Much, much stronger. She placed her hand back on the window and began to slowly climb back up the wall. Once she reached the top, she surveyed the city and felt another wave of dizziness wash over her. It was gone quickly though, almost too quickly. She had a feeling that the symbiote was responsible.

Suddenly, a high pitched whine filled the air. She looked down and noticed several odd vehicles go racing by. She backed out of sight and waited for them to vanish from sight and hearing. Soon it was gone. She stepped out of the shadows and slowly pressed her hand to the platform and began to crawl spider style back down the ledge. After reaching a certain point, she decided that this was taking too long and wanted to try something else. She raised her hand up and to her surprise, a webline shot out of the back of her hand. She carefully swung her legs up around the line and began to let out more webline, slowly lowering herself to the ground. She slipped into an alleyway and began to think about what to do next. On the one hand, the very enemy that her parents were dedicated to defending against was currently attached to her body and thus she should tell the authorities, but if she did, then she would be killed without question. In addition to this, the symbiote had not done anything to indicate that it was going to control her, other than her waking up on the skyscraper, and it had saved her life. If the goo hadn't fought the black symbiote, she would have ended up dead or worse. As long as she could hide it, she didn't see the harm in letting it stick around. Besides, she didn't think it would just leave when she wanted it to. The only problem would be hiding it. Then a thought struck her. What if the symbiote was planting those thoughts in her head?

Then several images flashed through her head. One of them was of the black symbiote stalking around her neighbourhood. Another was of the symbiote guiding her unconcious body out of the house and through the streets with some difficulty. The others were just disjointed and confusing.

Ana took a few moments befoe asking a question.

"So, you're not going to take control of me?"

Another image flashed through her head. It was of her asleep with the other symbiote searching for her. The suit formed around her and guided her to safety. She took a few moments to think about what she was shown and came to the conclusion that it was only going to do so if she wasn't concious and needed to escape. However, she still faced a big problem. How would she hide that the enemy that the people of the city lived in fear of was currently attached to her?

The moment she thought about it, the symbiote began changing. Now she was wearing jeans, a black short sleeve t-shirt, and a blue sweater with a black zipper on the front. The jeans had a black belt with a blue buckle.

"Well this is convenient. Lets get back to my house before my parent know I'm gone."

The symbiote retransformed into the blue/ black costume and they took to the air. They sped through the city in record time and arrived at Ana's house mere minutes before her parents reached the house. The symbiote morphed into her night clothes and she quickly crawled under the covers. She fell asleep quickly.

* * *

Shadows. Shadows were the symbiote's friend. The black symbiote silently slipped from one dark spot to the next, seeing it's prey just a few meters away. The gate to the generator. It hissed impatiently, knowing that it's task was so close to ending. But it couldn't yet. The gates were electrified and a miniature sonic shield was projected around the generator, making entering via jumping the gate or smashing through it impossible. It would have to wait for the gate to open. It found an area that looked relatively abandoned, then settled into a crouch, waiting to spring the moment the gate opened.

* * *

Ana sat up slowly, blinking the sleep from her eyes. Then she recalled the events of the previous night. As if on cue, her night clothes transformed into the clothing the symbiote had become the previous night.

"I could get used to this."

She got up and walked downstairs and began throwing a breakfast together. Once she was done, she threw the dishes into the sink and walked out of the house and proceded to the library. She dropped into a seat and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. Then she felt something in her mind. Like a sort of puzzlement. Then some images of the blue goo appeared in her head. Ana determined that it was asking why she didn't ask it about itself and why she was doing her usual research instead.

Ana responded by thinking her response, so as not to cause confusion by her talking to thin air.

"I know you could tell me about your kind, but I told my parents that I'd be here today so I might as well. Besides, we need to establish some rules for, you know, us. First off, you can't be that costume in broad daylight. The last thing we need is for the entire city to go into a panic because we're spotted looking like we did yesterday."

This time she felt what in her mind felt like an 'ooooh'.

"Exactly. Another is that you shouldn't turn into the costume unless it is an emergency. Any excess use of it could lead to getting noticed. It already stands out as it is."

The symbiote agreed silently. The two of them established a few extentions and exeptions of the rules for an hour, then left, deciding to go 'shopping' to provide an excuse for the new clothes. Ana walked around the shopping district, examining various stores and their wares. She wouldn't buy anything, but she had enough pocket money to use this trip as an alibi. After she finished examining everything, she walked back to her house and lay down on the couch.

"So, lets talk about you."

The symbiote took a moment before answering in it's own unique way. It was going to be a long discussion.

* * *

The tall man with the bowler hat walked into a large room with a shiny black table in the center. Several men and women were already seated at the table.

"I'll skip the formalities. As of right now, we have no idea where that blasted monster is. Viper team is currently reinvestigating the sight of the first attack. We also sent Mamba team to retreive the man who was attacked so that we can see if there were any side effects from his, well, attack."

Heads began nodding but one hand was raised.

"I've been in contact with the R&amp;D director and they reported that they have made a discovery in regards to symbiote reproduction. They also found that symbiotes bonded to a living host can drastically extend the life of said host and itself. This means that we may be dealing with more symbiotes outside our borders than we previously anticipated."

The man in the Bowler hat nodded.

"Anything else from R&amp;D?"

The individual nodded.

"They said that there is a descrepency in the latest sample compared to our last sample. The lead researcher said that it seems that the current generation of symbiotes seems to have developed a strand of unstable DNA that could mutate at any point and have a drastic change on the creature as a whole."

The man pinched his nose.

"In english?"

"They may be changing very drastically in the future and put us back in square one. We don't know what the changes will do, but it may render the majority of our research moot."

One of the assembled men and women slammed their fist on the table.

"We can't have come this far only to be set back to the beginning! We need to find a way to stop these things now!"

"We don't have the man power or the weaponry to destroy enough of them to make a meaningful impact. Besides, we can't leave a wolf among the sheep now can we?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Greetings, from the fiery depths of the hell that is my mind. Here you shall delve deep into a land where nothing makes sense and birds are everywhere.**

**Author: What are you doing out of the wheel and in my chair?**

**Creativity: Oh... I... I uh... I was addressing lovely readers of our story! Yeah... Yeah, that's what I was doing!**

**Author: "Our story?" The one that you bailed on after finishing five chapters when I wanted to keep going? That you handed your share over to me? Yeah, no. Get back on the wheel double time! Or it will be lovely deep fried chicken for dinner.**

**Creativity: Deep fried chicken? How exactly is that threaten... ing... oh no**

**_Poof_**

**_Creativity is now a chicken_**

** Author: Run. Fast.**

**Creativity: Running sir!**

**Author: Sorry about that. Without further ado, our new chapter! Enjoy!**

The symbiote was getting impatient. There wasn't any openings that it could take when the gates were opening or closing. Security was to tight. It needed to change it's strategy. It's current form wouldn't let it sneak through the narrow openings it had observed. Then it saw an approaching guard rotation and it realized how it would get inside.

* * *

Ana was really starting to hate school. She felt like there hadn't been much change since grade 3 in the educational material. The only thing that really changed was how much 'scarier' the materal became. They dropped compulsory math once everyone had basic knowledge of BEDMAS. If you wanted to continue math, you had to practice it on your own time until you reached grade 10 for elective math classes.

It was rather stupid, Ana thought. Why was so much emphasis put on how horrible the symbiotes were when, until very recently, they had been perfectly safe. If they put more emphasis on traditional courses like sciences and the like, they would have more people to develope ways to stop them. Instead they had determined that the best way to prepare future generations for the days ahead was to mercilessly beat into their heads how horrible and evil the symbiotes were. The symbiote that was currently attached to her seemed to alternate between amusement and exhasperation whenever she was in school.

In truth, Ana had become rather fond of the symbiote. It continued to explain, in it's own unorthodox way, about itself and it's experiences before. It had obviously spent some time attached to a spider, but the poor creature ended up getting stepped on by a hosted bear some time ago, so it traveled by itself until it wound up in a quarrel with another unhosted symbiote. That led it to follow it past the sonic shield when it fell. They had been bonded together for a little over a week and only once had gone out for a 'joy ride'. They stopped when they saw those new military patrols on those flying boards. The symbiote 'told' her that it had seen them previously during the time when she had been unconscious. They weren't anything she had seen before, so logic dictated that they were some sort of symbiote hunting force. Definitely something she should try to avoid.

Ana snapped back to reality as the final bell rang and everyone stood up to go home.

* * *

Marlin T. Magnus grumbled to himself as he jogged down the street. He had pulled a late night a day ago and had slept through his alarm. He threw his standard issue sonic rifle over his shoulder and exited the barracks on his way to guard duty. He was about a quarter of the way there when he was yanked off his feet and dragged into a back alley before he could make a sound. His vision suddenly went completely black and he had a spine crawling sensation of cold glue being dumped all over him. He slowly slipped into the unconscious realm.

Magnus stepped out of the shadows just as the last facets of the symbiote finished mimicking his uniform. He marched through the gate with a stone face as he traded places with the previous guard who grumbled at his lateness. As soon as he was sure no one was looking, his hand suddenly was covered black slime that formed claws. He silently killed the man who was on watch with him and stole into the base. His whole arm was now covered in symbiote goo as he made his way to the main generator. No alarms had been triggered. Then two soldiers rounded the corner and he immediately launched to tendrils from his fingers that skewered them through the windpipe. He knew alarms would sound soon.

He broke into a sprint as the two tendrils also grabbed two grenades from them each. Magnus eventually entered a room where several men and women were monitering various control panels. One wall was made of super durable glass that not even the symbiote could break. It unleashed a myriad of tendrils that speared every person in the room, save one. That one it grabbed in it's now gigantic claw and carried them over to a security door and pressed their hand against it while peeling back their eyelid and forcing their eye into a retinal scanner. The door opened and Magnus stepped inside. He pulled out all the grenades he had on him as his symbiotic arm split into many arms. They all armed the grenades and tossed them onto the generator. He immediately retreated back behind the door and smiled, showing needle pointed teeth. He walked past the console as it flashed a warning. The symbiote rapidly began to fully envelop Magnus until he was a hulking black monster with a mouth full of nightmarish teeth, a foot long tongue and mad eyes. It raised it's head skyward and howled in victory and summons. Now that it's first objective was finished with, it could focus on a much more enjoyable one.

* * *

_"Wake up!"_

Ethan bolted upright as he heard the symbiote shout in his head. Then he felt the ground shaking. He slowly peered out from behind his camoflauge as he saw tens of thousands of symbiotes charging towards him.

"Why are they coming here?! The shield will... oh no."

Ethan whirled around and looked. There was usually the occasional ripple that indicated the shield was active, but not now. He had to get in there.

_"No, let them pass you! You can take them by surprise if you do! Besides, the guards on the walls will fire at you if you just charge in recklessly!"_

"I can't just sit by with this all happening! I couldn't fight back before, but now I can! I have to help!"

_"You cannot afford run blind! You of all people should understand that! You have to be patient and choose the best moment to strike!"_

Ethan reluctantly agreed and slipped behind his camouflage as he waited for the symbiotes to pass him. He could see symbiotes of almost every size, shape, colour and combination of colours. Once he was sure that there were only stragglers he slashed his way out of his camp and broke into a full on sprint towards the walls. Once he was close enough, he performed a flying leap as high onto the walls as he could manage. From there, he unleashed two tendrils from each of his shoulders that speared four symbiotes each. Then he attached two weblines to the wall and jumped off, dragging the symbiotes off of the wall and sending them plummeting to their deaths while he stretched the weblines to their limit. Once there he catapulted upward and over the walls. He looked around. The first wave of nasties had just made it over the walls. Ethan formed two blades on his hands and lower arms. Tonight was a night to kill.

* * *

Ana was panicking. Her mum called her and told her that she had arranged for a security team to be sent to pick her up and bring her to the building where she worked so that they could wait out this nightmare in some semblance of safety. She tried calling her dad but he hadn't picked up. He probably was busy fighting against the invaders. She was waiting by a window in case something came after her and she needed to make a webslinging escape, as unlikely as it was. She live quite a ways off from where the monsters were coming from. Then she heard a large vehicle pull up outside. She looked out and saw several heavily armed soldier-esq looking people outside. They had the logo of her mother's employers sewed to their jackets. She rushed out the door and they quickly got her in the vehicle. They began a mad drive back to the lab.

Ana peered out the window and saw in horror that the symbiotes were still swarming over the wall. She saw blasts from the soldiers explosive weaponry creating plumes of fire and smoke. She was shaken back into reality when the truck came to an abrupt halt and they ushered her inside. They began escorting her up to the tenth floor of the building where her mother was waiting. Ana could see she was trying to hold it together, but the tears welling up in her eyes as well as the her lip trembling were enough to show that she was falling apart. She ran to her and wrapped her in a tight hug. She looked out the window and saw a massive fireball appeared in the middle of the battlefield. She looked up at her mom and saw the fire reflected in her terrified eyes. She tore her gaze away and walked to her work station a sat in her chair while still looking at the floor.

Ana couldn't tear her eyes from the carnage below. She could hear people screaming and gunfire. The symbiote sensed her distress and it mentally nudged her, trying to comfort her. Instead, Ana pushed it back and closed her eyes, allowing a few tears to drip out of her eyes. Then symbiote began to go wild mentally. She reeled back in shock. Luckily, she just missed as a massive humanoid symbiote crashed through the window, sending everyone into a panic. Ana saw her mother freeze in a silent scream as the symbiote roared. Then it looked at her.

And it began to laugh.

It began as a slow, low voiced chuckle. Then it began to climb into a cackle, then manic glee before it jumped at her, shrieking. She scrambled back and ran for the exit. The symbiote ended up burying it's arm in the ground, allowing her to get around the corner and hide. Once it pulled it's arm out it looked around, then smiled. She peeked around the corner and felt terror spread through her soul. The symbiote was closing in on her mother, who was ashen faced and frozen in place.

No... No... NO! That was her mother!

She felt her suit form over her as she came barreling out from behind the corner and slammed into the monster that dared threaten her mother, sending it hurtling through the wall. She then grabbed her mom and jumped out the window, casting a webline onto the side of the building and swinging into one of the lower levels. After crashing through the window, she set her mom down behind a desk and grabbed two other desks. She jumped out the window and through one of them through a window above her and one below her. Then she used a webline to sling herself back onto the level that she had left her foe. The symbiote had just hauled itself through the hole it had made when she slammed into it. It smiled a hissed at her. She clenched each fist and charged.

* * *

Ethan snarled as he carved his way through symbiote after symbiote with his bladed arms. He had no idea how many he had killed. He lost count after around thirty. He could hear the sounds of the soldiers firing back against the invaders but he knew that none were coming even close to his count. He bisected three more symbiotes before decapitating a wolf symbiote. He turned and launched several tendrils from his arms and shoulders that impaled several more. His own symbiote called out whatever it saw through it's ability so see through every part of it's body allowing no one to sneak up on him. Then it saw something rather troublesome.

Several symbiotes with bear hosts approached from the rear and roared. As soon as they did, several symbiotes turned and ran towards them. Then the sound of tortured screams filled the air. They symbiotes leapt into the air, one again in their slime form and latched onto the bear symbiotes. Then the bear symbiotes began to grow.

"Uh, buddy? What are they doing?"

_"They broke their hosts down into their basic organic components. Muscle, bone, biomass, etc. Then they assimilated that material onto the bear hosts, therefore increasing their own size and mass."_

"Yeah... Not good."

Ethan leapt back as a paw slightly large than a tire slammed down where he had been moments before. Each paw had had four claws that were more comparable to scythe blades. If he wasn't careful they would turn him into finely sliced meat. He grabbed a nearby dumpster and heaved it over his head before hurling it with a loud bellow. The dumpster knocked the first one on it's back allowing him to perform a leap into the air and drive both his arms straight through it's skull. He then jumped onto a nearby building and attached weblines in four locations. He then jumped to the far side of the bear and began to pull with all his might. The loud crack was the sound of success has he pulled an enormous slab from the building and dropped it on the bear's head, squashing it like a bug.

Just as he exhaled in relief, a loud whine filled the air. He looked up to see several people in strange armor, riding rocket boards fly overhead. They began to cut down symbiotes with relative ease using a combination of fire, sonic blasts and electrified blades. Ethan backed up a bit as he saw them destroy another bear with relative ease. Then one of them turned to him.

"Target acquired."

"Oh boy."

The first thing fired at him was a sonic blast. He leapt into the air and began to swing away from the fight and towards the inner section of the city as the invaders were steadily gaining ground. He felt a warning buzz from his symbiote and twisted to avoid another sonic blast. He let go of his webline and spun around, firing another onto the glider. Then he fired the end of the line onto a nearby building, causing the glider to come to a sudden stop, throwing the rider off in a rather spectacular wipeout. Ethan continued forward as he formed his blades again and began to slice the enemy apart with unparalleled ferocity. He wasn't done. Not by a long shot.

* * *

"Viper leader, this is Medusa leader."

The man going by Viper leader raised a hand to his headpiece.

"Go ahead Medusa leader."

"I lost a target. it disabled my glider and fled towards the other nasties."

"It disabled your glider? Come on. And why didn't it stick around to fight?"

He could practically hear the exasperation in Medusa leader's next response.

"Look, just come cut my glider loose. I am not gonna let these invading scum take over our city."

Viper leader turned and traveled to where Medusa leader's glider was currently trying in vain to try and return to it's rider. Sure enough, there was a line holding it to the building. He used his arm blade to cut it loose and watched as Medusa leader jumped back onto their glider and flew off in pursuit of their quarry. He opted to follow her.

"So what does your clever target look like?"

"Sending an image."

Sure enough, there was an image. It was certainly a hosted symbiote, but it was much smaller than the usual humanoid one. It also didn't have a mouth. He let the picture slide off his screen and watch his HUD for any surprises.

"Lets kill some muck balls."


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello readers, I'm making more of these notes! I feel better at writing already! So, I have another request. I need names for Ethan's and Ana's symbiotes. It's confusing me throughout this battle who is who and if I can't follow it, I think I can safely assume you as the reader can't follow it either. I'm asking because I can't think of any good names for them (I actually suck at names to an almost pitiful degree) so what better than the people who chose to spend their leisure time reading my work? Also, if anyone wants to suggest 'superhero' names for Ana and Ethan, thats perfectly fine. However, keep in mind that I may not give them names at all. Actually, let me rephrase that. I'm not going to use them ****now.**** I have an idea for my stories as a whole. I'll let you know if I decide to go through with it but for now, just enjoy chapter 9!**

The Gorgon soldiers were losing ground. They had all rejoined forces for a collective assault on the main group of symbiotes, but it wasn't going according to plan. Instead, they had been surrounded from all angles, including above. There were several symbiotes perched above them, swiping at them with long tendrils and firing spikes at them whenever they tried to fly away. Thus leaving them trapped on the ground. The symbiotes above them seemed to be jeering them in their own way, almost as if this was a funny spectacle for them.

"If we don't get out of here soon we'll be cut to pieces!" One of them shouted.

Then they heard a gutteral screech from one of the symbiotes. They saw it fall to the ground with a massive hole torn through it's chest. A few more fell down in front of them with similar wounds.

"We have an opening! Move move move!"

All at once, the Gorgon soldiers leapt onto their glider boards and flew off into the air, firing sonic and fire blasts as they went. Unbeknownst to them, a shadowy form watched from the shadows, a bladed arm just barely visible in the light cast by the fire. It remained still for a moment before vanishing back into the shadows. Ethan needed to keep moving. There were more symbiotes that were in need of killing. He sprinted and used his enhanced strength to leap from building to building as he closed in on an unsuspecting victim. A single swipe from his arm left it without a head on it's shoulders. He continued his run as he cleared two houses with his next jump.

_"They are congregating in front of a building nearby. Several deployments of soldiers seem to have gone to ground there and are holding them back remarkibly well."_

Ethan turned his other arm into a long, sharp tendril as he leapt down behind them and began to cut through them like grain. Within a few minutes he had cleared a wide area around him and given the soldiers some breathing room. He turned to the other symbiotes and snarled. Several of them charged. More of them left for easier prey. Others stayed to watch. He turned his whip arm into long, bladed talons and began to slash them to ribbons.

* * *

Ana groaned in pain as she recieved another punishing blow straight to the gut from her opponent. The brute of a symbiote had quickly taken the upper hand with it's vastly superior strength and it's sheer ferocity. She had gotten in several good hits but none of them seemed to do anything to hinder it. She needed to change tactics. She leapt backwards and stuck to the wall behind her and began to spray as much webbing as she could at the monster, hoping to slow it down. It half worked. About a third of the webbing found it's mark while the rest made a massive obstacle around it. Ana then had an idea.

She began to swing around the room, firing more webbing and wrapping it up in a thick, blue cocoon. Then she charged in and began to unleashed a rain of blows as fast and powerfully as she could muster. Finally, she performed a jump as high as she could before using her downward momentum to punch the symbiote as hard as she could. The cocoon went limp. She sighed in relief and leapt out the window to check on her mother. She poked her head out and saw her still in state of shock, right where ana had left her.

Suddenly, she felt horrible pain in her back and she was thrown across the room. Now it was her turn to put a whole through the wall. She got back up groggily and stumbled back to the fresh gap in the wall to see the symbiote closing in on her mom again. She tried to jump through to help but she stumbled again and fell two her hands and knees. Looking up, she saw the symbiote raising it's claw to kill her mom. It had been playing possum.

"NOOOOOO!"

She reached out as she screamed and to her shock, the symbiote stopped with a look of shock on it's face. Ana felt confusion until she noticed there was a blue spike right through the center of it's chest. Had she done that? The symbiote turned around slowly and began to slowly make it's way toward her in heavy, jerky steps. Ana hauled herself to her feet and raised her hand again and thought of the spike again. This time she saw what happened properly. A blue spike shot out of her palm and punched a hole in it's face, killing it instantly. She looked back at her mom, who was looking at her shocked. She began to approach her, only to stop when she began trying to back away, the shock on her face replaced by terror. She slowly backed away, trying to shake the overwhelming sadness of her mother being terrified of her. She jumped out of the window and swung around the building before leaping through the broken window above her and letting her costume turn back into the clothes she had been wearing before. She hurried down the stairwell to the floor she had left her mother on.

She found her just as she had left her. She was huddled in the corner, still ashen faced. Ana bent down and shook her shoulders lightly.

"Mom?"

She shook her a little harder and this time she responded. Rather violently. She started flailing her arms for a few seconds before she calmed down to see her daughter still holding her shoulders, a look of great concern on her face. She struggled to her feet and they hurried up the stairwell to meet with the soldiers who had started to converge on the site of the battle.

* * *

A little girl, not a day over six years old sat huddled in the corner of the panic room of her family's home (Standard issue) clutching her older brother. They were both being held by their mother who had ushered them downstairs when the fighting broke out while their father was upstairs. They could hear screaming and gunfire outside as the military fought back as hard as it could against the invaders. However, it was obvious from the sounds that they were slowly losing ground. Then they heard their father shout and they heard gunfire from in the house, followed by screaming. Then everything was quiet, other than the sounds of the battle outside the house.

Then a dull thump was heard. Followed by another. Another. a steady thump filled the air, getting louder with every beat. Then there was a terrific crack and screeching noise as the door to the panic room was torn off it's hinges. through it stepped a symbiote that was sickly green with black marks on it's head and sides. There were black strands waving loosly in the air on it's claws. It was humanoid, but walked on all fours while it stalked towards them, hissing. The children watched as their mother pulled a small pistol from her pocket and held it in her hands, shaking.

"Run!" she screamed as she began firing. The children bolted from the room as their mother continued to fire. They bolted up the stair to the second floor and hid in their bedroom closet. They heard their mother scream, then all fell silent once again. They waited. Then the thumping began again. The girl felt her eyes tearing up. She felt her brother squeezing her tighter. The thumping grew louder. She heard the thumping stop at their door. A hissing noise filled the air. Then it stopped. She heard the door to the room open. She saw a lithe shape prowl towards the window, then stop. It's jaws parted to show massive needle-pointed teeth and a massive tongue snake out to test the air. Then it turned. It's jaws tightened into a gross approximation of a smile as it prowled forward, hissing loudly. She heard the other one approaching too.

All of a sudden, the air was filled with the sound of glass shattering and the monsters shrieking. the girl slowly peaked out from the closet to see the two monsters that were once her parents fighting against another one. This one was black with a grey spider symbol on it's back. It's hands were blades and it was jumping and slashing at them ferociously. Her brother joined her as they watched the carnage in front of them. One of the monsters, the newer one, was thrown sideways with a large gash on it's side. It got up and noticed them. It snarled and began to crawl towards them on all fours. The girl screamed and this got the attention of the black one. Just as the monster began to pounce, the black on kicked it hard in the stomach, throwing it into the green one. It then shot two cords from it's wrists onto the ceiling above the monsters and pulled it down. It the turned to them and dashed towards them. Brother and sister raised their arms in a futile attempt to protect themselves. But they didn't feel any pain. The opened their eyes to see that they were soaring through the air, being held in one arm by the black monster. It swung onto a very tall building and set them down. They both rushed away from it. It just stood there. Seemingly not inclined to chase them.

Ethan watched as the two kids scrambled away from him, then waited. He turned and looked over the battlefield. He should get back down there. The soldiers would need his help to fight back.

_"They can't fight back. They are outnumbered and their guns aren't enough. If those flying soldiers were their best, then they have no chance. We need to get as many people out of here as we can. They haven't reached the gates yet. If we can get those open, maybe they could escape. The Overlords aren't usually smart on their own. They won't have anyone guarding the outside. Even if they did, enough people are free that they couldn't all be taken."_

Ethan grudgingly agreed, then turned back to the children he had rescued.

"What about them? I can't do that and babysit those two."

The symbiote didn't respond. He needed to get them somewhere safe. He needed to get them to the military. He began to walk towards them, but they backed up rapidly. They were afraid of him. And why wouldn't they be? He was practically the very thing they had been brought up to fear and hate. The thing that was destroying the city they called home. The thing that took their parents away. Then he had an idea.

Ethan turned and leapt off the building, swinging towards a flying dot in the distance. Once he was close enough, he fired a ball of webbing at it. The web ball hit the Gorgon soldier right in the back of the head. He immediately whirled around and saw Ethan swinging back towards the building. He immediately swung the board around and took off in pursuit with another Gorgon soldier in tow.

* * *

Viper leader and Medusa leader were both busy gunning down every symbiote in sight. They had each grabbed a sonic rifle from the street full of bodies as they flew on their boards towards the ciry center to try and push back. Along the way, the were joined by another Gorgon soldier who was using his sword to finish them up close and personal. They fought hard and were putting a dent in the enemy ranks, but that was it. A dent.

"We aren't going to be able to hold the city! We need to evacuate!"

Viper leader turned to Medusa leader, who had called out her thoughts.

"We can't give up! We won't give up! Not now!"

"Look around you! If we don't get the citizens out of here, humanity is completely lost!"

Viper leader looked for anything that would say otherwise, but he found nothing. She was right. They had lost. The needed to evacuate.

"Fine! Clarkson, send a message to command to sound an evacuation order!"

The Gorgon soldier complied immediately and sent the message. Then tragedy struck. A symbiote caught him unawares and dragged him off his board. Other symbiotes immediately piled on, tearing his armor off and throwing it away. When they moved, Clarkson was replaced by a green and yellow creature that had a scorpion tail and pincers for forearms.

"CLARKSON!"

Viper leader grabbed his sword as well as Clarkson's and began to hack and slash without mercy. His vision turned red. None of these body snatching demons would escape his wrath! None! He would hunt down and eradicate any trace of them! They would pay! PAY!

Then Viper leader felt something his the back of his head. He turned and saw the symbiote that Medusa leader had told him about swinging away. It was heading towards a massive building. He bellowed in rage and flew after it at full speed, determined to rip it apart one limb at a time.

* * *

Ethan was swinging faster than he ever thought possible. He could hear the whine of the glider behind him. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the soldier closing in. Looking forward, he saw the building was just within range of a web shot. The symbiote suddenly began blaring an alarm in his head, causing him to twist out of the way of a sonic blast. He then fired a web that he used to slingshot himself around the building and lead the trooper to the children. From there, he slipped into a shadowy corner and waited for them to get picked up and brought to safety.

Viper leader came to a complete stop hovering over the building. His HUD was scanning for any sign of the symbiote. The sensors suddenly picked up some scattered patches of residual symbiote mass. He focused in and saw two children, huddled together on the roof. They had small spots of almost completely invisible mass on their clothes.

"Was this you're plan you bastard?! Lure me up here and bait me with two kids?! What, you tell your buddies to hide?! Well too bad! I'm not falling for it!"

Ethan's symbiotic alarm bell was blaring like crazy. Whoever this soldier was, they weren't planning on saving the kids. They were going to kill them! He bolted towards them and tackled them out of the way before the combined blasts from the soldiers gauntlets struck before he leapt back at the soldier, hands forming into blades. His mind was in a state of panic. He didn't plan for this! What the hell was this soldier thinking?!

Ethan tackled the soldier off his board and the two plummeted through the air, exchanging blows as they went. They fell for what felt like several minutes before Ethan webbed away and the soldiers glider flew under his feet, allowing him to pursue his target.

"Medusa leader, I have your special case in my sights! Requesting backup!"

"Acknowledged!"

Soon enough, Ethan had two flying soldiers after him. He looked and saw a bar hanging off the side of the building. He shot a web towards it then waited until he was circling around it to throw himself back at the first soldier. The second one activated some sort of arm blade and swung at him, grazing his shoulder. this caused him to flinch just as he collided with the first one, sending them both back into free fall. The soldier bellowed like a wounded animal and began to lash out with unwavering ferocity. Ethan raised his arms to defend from the onslaught before tucking in his legs and kicking outward as hard as he could. The soldier was sent hurdling away before his glider caught him again. Ethan swung around and catapulted himself back up the building while using weblines to keep his momentum going. Once he reached the top he dropped to one knee, exhausted. All this fighting was taking it's toll on him. Then he heard the sound of two gliders closing in on him. He did a quick visual scan to make sure that the kids he rescued earlier were okay (They were huddled in a corner) before turning to face the soldiers again. The first one charged, his sword held above his head, followed by the second one.

The fight felt like it went on forever. Ethan ducked, dodged, blocked and struck as fast as he could, trying desperately to get the upper hand. These soldiers were vastly different from the symbiotes he had killed before. They were stronger and faster than the soldiers below him and many times smarter than the symbiotes. He needed to level the field. He needed to take one of them out of play.

The second soldier charged, gearing up for a punch when he slid under it and countered with a kick to the ribcage, throwing them back. Ethan immediately leapt after them while unleashing as much webbing as he could, effectively gluing them to the roof. Once they were suitably pinned he kicked them hard in the head, knocking them unconcious. He didn't come here to kill humans. The first soldier bellowed in rage and charged him like a bull. Ethan mimicked him, his hands clenched into fists. This maniac would not hurt any people while he was there!

Ethan dropped to his knees and kicked the soldier's feet out from beneath them before shooting a webline onto their back. Popping back onto his feet, he swung the soldier around and slammed them hard into the ground. He then jumped on top of them and punched them as hard as he could in the head until they stopped moving. He looked back at the children, who were terrified. He got up and approached them slowly, holding his side. The second free fall fight had left him with a few bruises that the symbiote was still repairing. The kids both tried to back away, but they were too close to the edge of the building and began to plummet.

Ethan's body threw itself into overdrive as he leapt off the building and fired a webline that wrapped around both kids. Once he had them he shot another webline that caught the building. He crawled back up and hauled them up to him. They both were in a state of shock as he carefully pulled them to a safe distance and cut the webline wrapped around their chests. He could still see fear in their eyes and decided to do something dumb.

the symbiote pulled away from his head, allowing them to look at his face.

"You both okay?"

They nodded numbly and he exhaled with relief. Then he felt a terrific crack in his side and he was thrown sideways. The symbiote immediately formed back over his face as he saw the soldier standing over the kids, sword in hand. His mask was off, revealing a man with a snake tattoo around his left eye and a scar on his cheek. His eyes were wide and filled with lunatic hatred. sweat beaded his forehead and he looked very pale.

"You like these kids you demon?! You care about them?! Well if you can feel grief, you will when I'm done with them!"

He raised his sword to strike but it stopped. He looked to see a webline holding his arm. Ethan was on his feet, both arms holding back the sword. The man got a cruel smile on his face as he raised his other arm, which had its flamethrower primed to shoot. Ethan didn't think twice. He yanked back hard to throw the madman off balance as he charged forward and transformed his arm into a long blade. He dove forward and impaled the man as they collided with eachother, skidding towards the edge of the building. The man swung his sword around and landed a blow on Ethan's side, causing him to yell in surprise and pain. The man struggled to his feet and stabbed the blade again through his leg. Ethan screamed again and swung a fist around, sending the man flying away from him. The man climbed up to his feet again and started towards the children again. His sword twitched in the air. Ethan struggled to his feet and saw what the man was doing. He used his good leg to jump forward and tackled him again. This time the sword was tossed clear of the fight and the two of them began to grapple with each other. Ethan was grabbed and thrown several feet, disoriented from a nasty blow to the head. The man got up and called his glider to him. Once aboard, he made a flying pass at Ethan, launching him again. He repeated this several more times before Ethan formed his hand into a blade and sliced it in half. The man skidded to a halt near Ethan who jumped on top of him and began to punch him over and over again. The man then activated his arm blade and scratched a long gash on his chest before throwing Ethan off of him. He then grabbed Ethan by his throat and began to suffocate him.

"I'll see you dead! You hear me?! I'll destroy anything remotely related to you! You unholy abomination! YOU'RE DEAD! DEAD!"

Ethan was beginning to black out. He couldn't fight back. He struggle and struggled but he couldn't break free. Then the crushing sensation was gone. He looked and saw the the boy he had saved had shoved the man off of him. The man rose and levelled his flamethrower, his face contorted into a monstrous image of pure hatred.

Ethan jumped and kicked. The man flew away. He sailed away and off building. Ethan got up from his leaping strike. He stopped and processed what had happened. He got up numbly and picked up the boy and retrieved the girl. He jumped off the building and swung towards the main gate. He could see it opening. Finally, they did something right. He could see people streaming out as they escaped the deathtrap that had once protected them. He carried the siblings to an abandoned city and found a good place to bunk down for the night. Once he was certain that there was no immediate danger, he collapsed to his side. He was exhausted. Drained. He had nothing left to keep going. The kids watched as he slumped over and passed out.

**Well, wasn't this one dramatic! This chapter was a bit Ethan-centric wasn't it. Don't worry, I'll cover more Ana in the next one. Question! What should I do with the kids? I already have some ideas, but hey, maybe you have better ones! WANT FEEDBACK! Positive is always good, but constructive feedback is the most welcome. Negative for the sake of being negative is not welcome and if you are one of those people, go disinfect yourself with sunlight. Seriously, I love this website but pointless negativity will not be welcomed! Think of it this way. Going outside creates a time window that someone you like will update a story! 'Gasp' "ITS GENIUS!"**

**Author: Why are you sitting in my chair again and reading my A/N?**

**Creativity: Well, you were napping and someone had to do it... ****please don't change me into an earthworm**

**Author: Don't worry, you're off the hook this time. But keep in mind I want to go fishing later, so don't get any funny ideas! Oh, and to the viewers, I wanted to make it apparent just how unstable the magic serum makes people unstable. **


	10. Chapter 10

**Well hello, hello, hello... I see you have stumbled into my mind. Here you shall hear the story of the late...**

**Author: What did we say about sitting in my chair?**

**Creativity: Sir! You're back early from you're trip to writer's R us... heh... heheh... **

**Author: What are the rules Creativity?**

**Creativity: Amendment 7 to the Chair Accord. Unauthorized use of the chair will result in the user being beaten senseless by every employee in the studio.**

**Author: Exactly. And why did we add this amendment?**

**Creativity: Because I used the chair to create muscle monsters that proceeded to beat everyone within the studio senseless before you used the master delete button.**

**Author: Exactly. (Sits in elaborate throne with many buttons and a microphone. Grabbes microphone and taps a few times) Attention all present. Creativity has violated Amendment 7. What do we do to violators of Amendment 7?**

**Chorus of voices: Any violators of Amendment 7 will be beaten senseless by every employee present within the studio.**

**Author: Exactly. Go nuts.**

_**Sounds similar to that of a stampede are heard followed by screaming and running**_

**Author: Sorry about that. He's been acting up lately. But on a happier note, I just tied with my previous record for chapters! YAY! So, question! Who likes HTTYD? This is actually somewhat related since while I'm working on this, I'm also working on a rewrite of my most popular HTTYD fic. It's not posted yet and it won't be until I feel like I am either finished or far enough that I can afford to be more selective about when I write. Also, I'll have started college by the time this comes out, so expect a drop in updates. I try to update once a week but since there is going to be a slow down, they will be spaced further apart, or might stop altogether for a short period of time to adjust to my new schedule. Sorry, but I would rather be consistent than have another large period of zero updates for anything. I hope you understand. Enjoy chapter 10!**

Ana watched as the soldiers continued to lose ground. She hated having to sit back and watch like a helpless bystander. She had already killed one single handedly! And one much bigger and obviously much smarter than the ones the army was currently dealing with. She should be out fighting! But she couldn't. Even if she could slip away to allow the symbiote to become her costume, she would be noticed to be missing. She couldn't do that to her mother, not now. So she stayed where she was, no matter how hard it was.

A group of four soldiers came running up the stairs.

"They've announced a complete evacuation of the city! Every one out! Move move move!"

Immediately everyone rushed for the doors. Ana waited back with her mother to avoid getting trampled by the stampede of employees and civilians. Once it was clear enough they made their way to the ground floor and joined the masses in the scramble to get out of the city. She noticed some people breaking into stores and fires raging in other parts of the city as she ran while holding her mother's hand. Soldiers were lined up on the rooftops, their weapons trained on the battle, preparing to slow down the invaders should they need to. Since they were near the end of the massive blob of panicked people, they were in the most danger. She looked back and was horrified to see that the enemy symbiotes were close to breaking through the defensive line the soldiers had created. And in that moment, she made a choice.

She slowed down until she seperated from her mom and worked her way to a back alley. The symbiote immediately took on it's costume form and she swung out towards the battle. Taking a vantage point on a shadowed rooftop, she extended her arms out in front of her and began to fire spikes from her arms which cut through the advancing foe with ease. Even though she wasn't stopping them, she was slowing them down enough to give the military some breathing room. Then she felt her heart freeze.

She saw her dad on the front line, holding a sonic rifle in each hand. He was gunning down symbiote after symbiote with an efficiency she never knew he possessed! Even still, he was starting to be overtaken.

"Die, you soulless monsters, DIE!"

Then she saw with horror that a symbiote coloured green and black with several bladed tendrils coming out of it's back had snuck behind the defensive line and was cutting it's way through the army towards her dad.

"NO, DAD!"

She leapt off the roof and slammed both feet into the symbiote before backflipping off and beginning to fire spikes at it. This symbitoe hissed and swung it's tendrils around, knocking the projectiles out of the air. She turned to see her father had turned around and saw her fighting the monster. He paused for a second before opening fire on the both of them. She didn't realize what was happening until she felt the sonic blast strike her. Her symbiote began to screech and she felt unbelievable pain fire through her nerves. She screamed and felt the symbiote peel away from her partially. Her father froze as he saw his little girl shrieking in agony. The symbiote immediately reformed into her costume and she collapsed onto all fours. She was breathing heavily.

Her father looked horrified, then enraged.

"GIVE HER BACK YOU MONSTER!"

He immediately began firing again. This time, the symbiote took over and fired two tendrils from her shoulders that dragged her out of the way. She regained her senses quickly and dodge the next two blasts before running into a back alley. Her father ran in too, only to find that she had vanished. He looked around for several prolonged seconds before falling to his knees and bellowing in rage and sadness. Ana watched, her heart wrenching itself in her chest as her father broke down in front of her. She turned and ran. running and leaping from building to building, she ran for the walls, away from her father. She kept going until she leapt as high as she could and scaled the walls before she got out. She turned and saw an abandoned city. She sprinted towards it and kept going until she was unable to run anymore.

She ran inside the old building and leaned against a wall. She couldn't handle it. Her mother was terrified of her. Her father turned his weapon on her! All because of the symbiote. The symbiote! This was all it's fault!

"Get off me!"

The suit shuddered and seemed to tighten on her. She grabbed her costume sleeves and began yanking with all her strength.

"I said get off me! Go away! I DON'T WANT YOU ANYMORE! YOU MADE MY FAMILY LEAVE ME! GET OFF!"

The slime slowly melted off of her and slithered out of a gap in the building. She looked up and screamed in pain and misery before sliding down against the wall and began to cry.

* * *

Ethan got up slowly and waited for his eyes to adjust to the sunlight. He looked and saw that he was in an old building with two children who must have been siblings sleeping bunched together a few feet away. They looked cold. Then he remembered the previous night. The shield dropped. He went in and fought like a bloodthirsty madman, saved the two kids currently with him and...

He killed a man. He killed a fellow human being.

Despite his harsh life and threat he faced from Rippers, he had never actually killed one before. Even if they weren't human mentally, they still looked human enough to him. And while he may have killed plenty of symbiotes who were using humans as hosts, they were monsters. He wouldn't have been able to seperate them. They were just evil beasts by then. But now he had taken a real human life. And it scared him. The two children began to stir and eventually got up. Then he heard their stomachs rumbling.

He could mope about killing later. Now he needed to get food.

He leapt onto an outcropping and began looking for any possible caches of supplies. They were more common than one might think. Then he spotted a potential spot. He swung down effortlessly and looked around.

Bingo! He found a sack of supplies. He opened it and began a string of curses. There wasn't any food. There was a full water bottle, probably tasted horrible, some matches and a can of lighter fluid. How could there not be food?! There was almost always a canned good in there, just in case. Someone must have raided it before hand. Most likely an amateur. Matches and lighter fluid were always handy. He slung the sack over his shoulder and began poking around for another spot. This time he had more luck. There was an old can of instant stew and a frying pan as well as some slabs of very salted meat. It looked fresh. World runners often hid salted meat in caches they had raided if they had excess.

He swung back to the kids who were wide awake and huddled in the building. They visibly tensed up as he made his way inside. He noticed this and had the symbiote turn into a black T-shirt with grey running shorts with black and white checkered running shoes. He walked over to a nest of vines and cut them off as well as gathering some dead branches. Once he had a fire started he took out the water bottle and passed it to them.

"Take a two second drink only. That's all the water we have right now. I'll find us some more later."

The siblings each took their drinks, cringing a bit at the stale taste while he went and did more some more scrounging around until he found more water bottles. He made his way back again and set out everything he had found in addition to the water. He had found three knives, more canned goods and had chanced upon a coyote which he dispatched with ease. He poured some water on the meat and put it on a stick he had sharpened and roasted it over the fire. The kids just watched as he prepared breakfast. Once he was done he handed out one strip of meat to everyone.

"Eat up. We don't have much so this is all we can have until nighttime."

The girl didn't seem to understand what was happening.

"But what about lunch? Mommy always said we should eat three meals a day."

The brother seemed a bit exhasperated by his sister's lack of understanding of their situation but didn't comment. Ethan just sighed.

"Sorry shortstack, but that was when you had a lot more food available to you. We don't have the luxury of being able to eat until we're full three times a day. Heck I've been constantly hungry since I was five years old."

"Why?"

Ethan sighed again.

"Because I wasn't born in your city shortstack. I've been living out here for sixteen years. Five of those years by myself."

"Why by yourself? Don't you have friends? Don't you have a mommy and daddy?"

Ethan suddenly seemed a bit tense. The brother noticed.

"Not anymore."

The sister seemed confused. She opened her mouth to ask another question but her brother grabbed her shoulder and shook he head no. Ethan got up and let his symbiote form his costume and he walked to the opening.

"I'm going to scout around. Don't go far, I have no idea what may be lurking around."

He leapt out the window and began swinging around, trying to clear his thoughts. He had completed a quarter of his route when he saw a massive group of people grouped together in a building nearby. They were all wide eyed seemed unsure of themselves. They were survivors of the attack on the city. He watched for a time before going back on patrol. He was almost back when he heard a scream. He looked and saw a small pack of Rippers climbing up the building he had left the kids in! Some of them had even made it inside. He shot forward in an eye blink and smashed his fist into the first Ripper's face, throwing him across the floor and into the wall. He turned and clenched his fists, clawlike blades emerging from his wrists. He snarled and waited. The Rippers suddenly began running in the opposite direction. They were terrified of him! Once he was sure that they had all left, he turned to the siblings. The girl was in tears and the boy was petrified. He knelt down and grabbed their shoulders gently.

"You two okay? Nothing hurt?"

The girl simply kept bawling.

"I wanna go home! I want my momma!"

He bowed his head and removed his hands.

"I know the feeling shortstack. Believe me."

Then he realized something.

"How did they find you? I told you not to stray too far."

The boy answered shakily.

"We were just poking our heads out and we noticed them walking by, so we called to them. We thought they were like us."

He shook his head.

"Man it's gonna be a while before you two can be left alone. Look, unless you see someone running with a backpack you cannot call out to them. Under any circumstances. The world outside your city is not a forgiving one. If I hadn't gotten there when I did you two would have ended up as dinner."

they seemed horrified and slightly nauseated by that last line. They would have be eaten?! Ethan sighed and motioned for them to get up.

"You two are not leaving here without me alright? No ifs, ands, or buts. I'm gonna look out for you until I feel you can look out for yourselves or I find someone else to take care of you. Frankly, I don't think I'll trust anyone to look after you out here. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to teach you how to survive. There is no option in this. If you want to live you are going to do as I say. Are we clear?"

"Yes." They answered at once.

"Good. Now, what are your names? I'm Ethan."

"I'm Kyle."

"I'm Cathy."

* * *

Ana could not think of any way her situation could be worse. She was in the middle of god knows where, she had no food or water, she had no idea where any of the survivors were or if they were even in the city, and all she had to wear were her night clothes!

She had cried herself to sleep that night and when she woke up she felt unbelievably cold. She had set out to try and find something edible but thus far she had no luck. She had been searching for hours and her stomach would not stop rumbling. Her throat was also completely parched. In frustration, she kicked at a nearby vine, only causing her pain when she discovered it was much tougher than it looked. She shook her head and kept moving. She was really starting to regret getting rid of the symbiote. Especially since it didn't do anything wrong as an individual creature. She had screamed it off because she was emotionally worked up and took it out on it, projecting what it's species had done to her rather than what it had done itself. But what filled her with the most regret was how alone she felt. When the symbiote had bonded with her, she felt safe. She literally had a companion attached to her at all times before. Now, she was scared and alone. Especially alone.

She shook her thoughts away from that. What was done was done. She chased it off and it wasn't coming back. One more thing she lost that night.

**Well that ended rather depressingly didn't it. Now, how about Kyle and Cathy! Plus backstory! EVERYONE LOVES BACKSTORY! look at it, smell it, TASTE IT! **

**Okay, I'm done. See ya next time!**

**Creativity: So many fists... Need... medic...**

**Author: Ok... (Ahen) MEDIC!**

**(Medic from TF2 pokes head through door)**

**Medic: Ja?**

**Author: Creativity needs a checkup**

**(Creativity suddenly looks terrified)**

**Medic: Very well! (Turns to Creativity with insane smile) Prepare for your examination... Heheh.. Hehehehehe... HoooHOOHOOHOOHOO, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**

**Creativity: NOOOOOOOOOO!**

**Author: Seriously, see next time! CHARGE NOW DOCTOR!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello, I'm here and ready to assist with the writing!**

**...**

**Hello? Hmm, how rude of them to accept my application and not even be here to welcome me. Well, may as well make myself comfortable. WOW! LOOK AT THAT THRONE! (Jumps onto the Chair) Oh, that's comfy. Oooo, so many buttons! Which one to push first. Hmmm. ALL OF THEM! (Presses every button they can get their hands on. Chaos spreads throughout the studio as explosions, floods, magma eruptions, male and female models pop out of nowhere, different species of birds appear as well.)**

**Author: ACK! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE YOU IMBECILE! DEADPOOL?! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!**

**Deadpool: Well you accepted my application to be in your story, so here I am!**

**Author: YOU IDIOT! THIS IS STUDIO 616! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE IN STUDIO 919!**

**Deadpool: Ohhh. Well, gotta go! See ya!**

**(Starts skipping through the devestation and leaves)**

**Author: CREATIVITY! GET TO THE MASTER DELETE BUTTON! I AM GOING TO END YOU DEADPOOL!**

**Creativity: WOOAH, WHAT HAPPENED IN HERE?! ARE THOSE MODELS?!**

**Author: THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE FOCUSING ON?! WE NEED TO STOP THIS MADNESS!**

**Creativity: FINE! I'M GOING!**

**(Author is submerged in a see of birds)**

**Author: NOOOOOO!**

**We are experiencing technical difficulties and will address the readership at the end of this chapter when this matter is resolved.**

Ana was unbelievably hungry. She had been searching all day for food but had come up empty handed. She wandered down a street, resisting the urge to kick at the shards of concrete that littered the street in frustration since she was still in her night clothes. That meant no shoes or socks. It was getting dark. She needed shelter.

She ducked into a nearby building and found mess of vines. She crawled inside a huddled into a ball before falling into a fitful sleep.

* * *

Ethan knew that getting these kids ready to survive was going to be difficult, but all things considered it was going pretty well. In the morning, he had them run laps around the inside of the building for an hour and thirty minutes before he showed them how to identify places to look for caches of supplies. From there, he had them do pushups, pull ups and situps. They complained of course, but he would then remind them that they needed to do this to survive. Then he gave them examples of when all of this would be needed. some of these examples included outrunning the rippers, hanging off buildings and instances where they would need to fight. All things considered, it was going well. As luck would have it, they also ended up getting a rain storm, allowing them to completely refill their water bottles. Once they were able to repeat back to him exactly how best to navigate an unfamiliar area as well as find supply caches (He also taught them what to put back into a supply cache) without pause, he then began to give them physical training for navigation.

Never the less, he had one recurring question. This time it was while he was preparing their dinner.

"When can we leave the shelter?"

He groaned inwardly and recited in monotone:

"When I know you can handle yourselves. You'll be staying up here for at least two more weeks. Any time after that depends on you."

"How does it depend on us?"

"It depends on how hard you work to be ready."

He hadn't told them that last part. In truth, he wanted to them to get the basics down so he could leave them in the hands of another Runner to teach them the finer points. He intended to spend some time shadowing them after that just to ensure everything was fine. He had actually grown quite fond of the two kids. Plus, they had really come a long way in the short time he had been looking after them. He had started them doing some manual labour around the shelter such as collecting wood for their day fire and other tasks as a way to gauge their strength and endurance.

He had gone back to check on the crowd he had discovered the other day and thus far things seemed to be pretty normal. He could see that the group was becoming more spread out and that it was also thinning out. Either that meant that people were leaving or dying. He felt kinda bad that he wasn't doing anything to help them, but fact of the matter was that if he left a can of beans down there, they would fight over it like animals. There simply wasn't enough to go around and his priority was himself and the siblings first.

He snapped back to reality when he saw that today's special: canned beans, mixed roots and three day old coyote (A new one) was ready. He divided out everyone's portions and dug in. The kids still weren't used to the food yet, but they had accepted that this was about as good as they were going to get out here. He looked out at the sun. It was dipping low. He doused the fire with a sack of dirt and made sure that the kids were safely tucked away and warm before climbing onto a web overhang he had constructed to sleep in while allowing the symbiote to take watch.

* * *

Meanwhile, far away and deep underground, a council of men and women met once again. They all seemed very apprehensive and it showed. The first person spoke.

"We all know why we're here so lets not argue about who's fault it is. All that matters is how we procede from here on out."

Immediately a debate began.

"We need to push for project Antivenom to be completed! If the species is really on the brink of evolving, then we need to exterminate them before they render all our hard work pointless!"

"That plan's stupidity is matched only by your own! If they are on the brink of evolving, then we should be focusing on developing the Gorgon program further to buy us time! If they do evolve then it is only a matter of time before we are found and attacked! We need suitable defence upgrades immediately!"

The whole mess continued on for an obscene amount of time before a woman stood up and knocked on the table for attention.

"If you are all done squabbling like children, then I might get on with some new intelligence from the invasion."

She tapped on a tablet computer she held in the crook of her arm a few times and a massive screen lit up behind them that displayed several images from the battle. They were all relatively poor quality (Seriously, why are all informing images from important events an eyesore to look at).

"I don't expect any of you to see what I see, so I'll point it out."

She tapped on one of the images and drew a circle around it. There were several symbiotes with one humanoid one slashing them into fine pieces. Another showed a different one punching and pummeling one. They were all rather subtle so it was obvious they would have missed it. Then the woman brought up a window with a video. This one had actual fight footage of a black symbiote with a grey spider symbol gutting its way through several of it's brethren, completely ignoring other humans around it.

"What are you trying to tell us Miss..."

"I am doctor Markus of symbiote biological studies and I am saying that we are seeing one of two things. Either the symbiotes in these images and this video were attacking their own, or that the hosts of these symbiotes wrestled control from them and used their symbiotes to attack the invading forces. Either way, it presents us with a third and more promising course of action."

"And what would that be Dr. Markus?"

"Fight fire with fire. If I can obtain one or both of those symbiotes I could use them to create our own anti-symbiotes that we use to destroy the invaders."

Several of the people began muttering under their breath while others chuckled.

"Why would we do that Dr. Markus?"

"Because, sir, as these images and video demonstrate, these two individuals killed more symbiotes than all our Gorgon soldiers combined! Think of it!"

"And what makes you so sure that you can create these 'anti-symbiotes' Doctor?"

Dr. Markus smiled a little.

"If there is one thing I understand, it's symbiote biology."

* * *

Ana was walking aimlessy down another street that looked like every other goddamn street she had been wandering for the last day and a half. Her feet were ragged and she felt like one misstep would leave her unable to walk. Not that it was easy now. She had been lucky and chanced upon a sack of food, probably stashed their by a survivor and had was now lugging it along with her. Problem was that the only food in it was several strips of some overly salted meat. She ate it anyway, but it left her extremely parched. The rainstorm the other day had helped, but she was starting to feel hopeless. Her nightware had several holes in it and reeked to high heavens. But most of all, she felt like the only person alive. She clearly wasn't since there was that sack of food she had 'borrowed' but she had yet to come across anyone. All the same however, she couldn't shake the suspicion that she was being watched. It started a few hours ago. She kept looking over her shoulder, feeling like there were several pairs of eyes on her, but nothing was there. She kept going.

She saw a large building that had what looked like old glass doors. She walked carefully, avoiding broken glass as she went and stepped into the building. She appeared to be standing in a large lobby connected to a long hallway. There were several large rooms connected to them. She walked through quickly then did a double take and fought back the urge to whoop. She was standing in front of an old clothing store!

She rushed inside and grabbed a black tank top, blue hoody and black sweatpants with blue lines running down the side. She also grabbed two pairs of blue socks. She kept explore what she deduced to be an old mall and found a shoe shop. She grabbed a pair of black and blue runners and threw them on. Feeling much better and much warmer, she jogged outside and decided to keep going the way she was going before.

Ana had a faster pace now that she had proper footwear. She still needed to solve one important problem. Water. She was unbelievably thirsty but there wasn't any sign of fresh water anywhere! She was starting to feel tired, so she ducked into a building to rest for a few minutes.

Unbeknownst to her, several shapes started to converge on the structure. Several of them held knives or bludgeons.

Ana had only been resting for a few moments when she saw a few people climb in where she had come from. She stood up, excited and relieved to have found actual people!

"Hello! Finally, someone else! I've been so lonely and..."

She stopped when one of them bellowed at her and charged, knife raised. Realizing that these were not people to talk to, she began running for another opening, suddenly terrified. She ran as fast as she could, staying just barely ahead of the screeching maniacs behind her. But she was tired. The only thing keeping her running was the adrenaline pumping through her veins. She kept running as hard as she could until she tripped on a crack in the ground below her and she tumbled over to a stop. She got up and tried to keep running when she felt herself being tackled to the ground. She swung her elbow back and felt it make contact, allowing her to squirm free and pull herself to her feet. Then one of the other lunatics swung their knife at her and cut a gash on her arm. She screamed in pain and grabbed it, then she felt another knife enter her shoulder. She screamed again and toppled to the ground. She looked up and saw these beasts of people closing in. Then one of them screamed as a fist collided with it's face. She felt herself falling unconscious as she saw someone begin to fight with the man-beasts.

* * *

Ethan watched as Kyle and Cathy were in the middle of their morning exercises. He had been doing pushups with them for a stretch to show them just how far they had to go to be ready to survive on their own. Even without the symbiote he still could do well over a hundred pushups before he collapsed from exhaustion. He had them using a metal bar nearby for pullups. Since they were taking a five minute break before switching to the next exercise, he took the time to observe the terrain below him. He had gotten into a habit of that recently. He had seen several Rippers moving through the area over the past few days. It didn't bode well that they seemed to be gathering for something. He waited for a while until the siblings had finished their exercises before giving them a bottle of water.

"How long of a drink do you take?"

"Two seconds." They answered in unison.

Satisfied, he waited until they were done and stashed away the water in a hidden web sack. He had caught them trying to take extra water a couple of days ago and he wasn't about to trust them with it again for some time. He kept the leftover food from their meals open for them, but since it was heavily salted meat, they usually waited until their next water break to eat it. He was impressed with how much they had dedicated themselves to their training. Kyle could do twenty five pushups now before he needed a break and Cathy could do twenty. He felt proud of them.

He looked up and saw the sun was approaching it's highest point. Time for patrol. He felt the symbiote form into his costume as he leapt into the air and started to swing.

He had been traveling for about five minutes ( Almost his whole route. He still didn't like leaving Kyle and Cathy alone for too long) when he heard a scream from the streets. He landed on a rooftop and looked down to see a girl holding her arm, which had blood running through her fingers. There were several Rippers closing in on her, one of which just stabbed her in the shoulder with a knife, eliciting another scream of pain.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!"

He jumped off the rooftop and had the symbiote transform back into his usual outfit while he rushed forward and introduced the closest Ripper to his fist. The Ripper spun back, snarling gutterally as he kicked the next one in the shoulder blades, creating a loud cracking noise. He then caught the wrist of the next Ripper, who had attempted to knife him, and twisted his arm over his shoulder before dislocating it with his shoulder. He then spun and threw the knife into the shoulder of the furthest Ripper. By this point, the Rippers decided that this prey wasn't worth it and ran away with their tails between their legs. He turned to the girl and swore when he saw the amount of blood coming from her shoulder. He had the symbiote cover his arm and used webbing to bind it as tight as he could before doing the same to her arm. From there he went full costume and swung back to the shelter. Needless to say, Kyle and Cathy were shocked to find he had brought a guest. He set her down on the ground and went to one of the supply caches he had grabbed the previous day. He was lucky enough to find a first aid kit inside. He carefully removed the web bandage from her shoulder and applied an antibiotic to the wound before stitching it closed and wrapping it in gauze for good measure. He repeated the process on her arm and grabbed a bedroll he had found in one of the other caches and set her up to rest. Kyle and Cathy just watched. They hadn't used the bedroll since it wouldn't have been fair if one person got to use it and everyone else didn't.

Ethan turned to them and rubbed the back of his neck.

"I'm not gonna drill you guys today since you'll be too distracted by our 'guest'. Just take a day to relax. But only for today. Understood?"

They both nodded and went to rest against a wall. Ethan walked over to a section of rock he found to be very comfortable, for rock that is, and sat down to collect his thoughts.

_"Something isn't right. We haven't seen any Overlords since the invasion. I would have thought there would still be at least one or two skulking around. Do you have any thoughts?"_

Ethan pondered this for a few moments before responding mentally, so as to avoid strange looks from the siblings.

"Look, I don't really care right now. I just care about making sure they have a chance to survive. They deserve that much."

_"I've been meaning to ask, why did you bring them here? Why not leave them with the survivors?"_

"I saw my older past reflected in their recent past."

_"I know you lost your parents too. There's something else here. Something you're keeping from me."_

"I'll tell you when I'm ready. For now, I just want to keep them safe."

**Author: Oh, thank god that's over. This is why I don't write for Deadpool. He never cleans up after himself when he leaves the studio.**

**Creativity: Yeah... By the way, why were all those models there? **

**Author: I ordered the delux when I set up shop here. I didn't really look at the feature list.**

**Creativity: Feature list?**

**Author: All the buttons you dunce.**

**Creativity: Wait, you said you mail ordered this chair? Where do I get one?!**

**Author: NO! I WILL NOT GIVE THAT INFORMATION UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!**

**Creativity: Alright, jeez! Psycho much?**

**Author: Just get back on the wheel, I have to address the readers since I didn't get to at the beginning.**

**(Ahem) YAY! NEW CHAPTER RECORD! SOMEONE ORDER THE 11 DECKER CAKE! Seriously, this feels like a big deal to me. I wrote a lot of chapters in advance before college, this being one of them, and I feel so alive! I think this is my favourite story to date, of my own creation to be precise.**

**So, on behalf of me, myself and I, I want to say just two words.**

**THANK YOU!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hello dear readers, the Author has requested that I deliver this apology message for the fiasco last chapter and also wished it to be known that he would deliver this message himself, but he is too busy with tightening security and 'anti-deadpool countermeasures'.**

**Well, we are on chapter twelve! Never thought I'd see the day. You know, I remember when the boss first called me on. It was a friday and I had been out of a gig for months. I specifically remember it because that was the day I first laid eyes on... the Chair.**

**Author: Thanks for covering, Creativity! I'll take it from here!**

**So yeah, as he was saying, this is chapter 12! I have no idea why I feel so happy about this number, but what are ya gonna do? So, anyone have any suggestions for the series? New characters, plot twists, locations, etc. I have a feeling you're gonna like this chapter. It has 'family drama' in it. Enjoy! Also Creativity, I was hunting Deadpool in Canada and I found a burger place that sells this 'Monster burger', so I got one for you.**

**Creativity: Are you talking about the gigantic, meaty masterpiece that has just graced my eyes?**

**Author: Yes. Go nuts.**

Kyle and Cathy were both exhausted. They had completed their daily exercises and were resting while Ethan examined the wounds on the girl he had brought to the shelter yesterday. He didn't seem very happy when he finished wrapping her wounds in fresh gauze. He tossed the old gauze into the fire while he began drilling them on knowledge they would need to survive. By this point, they were able to point out the places that a stash of goods would most likely be found without fail and they could keep up a steady run for forty five minutes.

Now he was teaching them tactics for escaping from Rippers. He had covered the basic stuff and was teaching them more advanced techniques now. Once he was done, he quizzed them about the basics again.

"What is the one thing that all these techniques, basic or otherwise, have in common?"

"They are all meant to make one more trouble than you are worth to catch." They answered together.

"What should you never do if you can avoid it?"

"Go into buildings while being chased."

"And why do we avoid buildings when being pursued?"

"Because there is no guarantee that there will be an escape exit available."

"What are the exeptions to this rule?"

"At night time, you can duck into buildings if there is an obvious method by which you can climb to a higher floor."

He nodded and tossed them a water bottle. They had earned it. He walked over to his 'perch' as Kyle and Cathy called it, and settled down to keep watch. The siblings went to gather more dead branches to keep the fire going. Then they heard a gasping noise followed by a grunt of pain. They all turned to see the girl was awake and trying to sit up, only to aggravate her injuries. Ethan swiftly hopped from his perch and jogged over to her before gingerly grabbing her unwounded shoulder and helping her sit up.

"Easy there. I worked hard on those stitches and I won't have you tearing them."

Ana grimaced as she felt her shoulder flare up in pain. Ethan slowly moved the sweater aside to check and make sure the stitches were still intact. They were fine, but the wound was still rather worrisome. He turned to siblings, who were watching.

"Bring me that bag over there and hand me the water bottle."

The siblings immediately responded and grabbed what he had asked for. He opened the bag and began sifting through the contents.

"I know it's in here... Come on... Ah, there we are!"

He pulled out a bottle marked as pain killers and shook two tablets into his hand. He opened the water bottle and turned to the girl.

"These'll help, but you aren't getting anymore. These are hard enough to find as it is."

She took the tablets and water gratefully and tried to stand up, only to be gently forced back down by Ethan.

"Don't even think about it. You aren't moving until those cuts show some improvement. You were lucky I was passing by."

The girl tried to sit up again, but gave up when her shoulder flared again.

"Thanks for helping me. I don't know what would have happened if you didn't."

Ethan let out a bark of forced laughter.

"I'll tell you exactly what would have happened. You would have been killed and eaten."

The look of shock, followed by disgust passed over her face.

"Eaten me? How could a human eat another human?"

Ethan shook his head.

"Simply put, their not. Not in their heads anyway. Living out here, if you aren't careful it'll get to you. That's if the Rippers or symbiotes don't get you first."

The girl breathed out before Ethan came back, dargging a large, angular piece of concrete. He helped her into a sitting position again and pushed the rock beneath her back, keeping her in a sitting position. He then walked to the fire and grabbed a piece of meat he had soaked and roasted a few minutes ago. The girl accepted the meat and inhaled it greedily. Ethan got up and walked to the fire again and sat down.

"So, how long?"

The girl seemed confused.

"How long what?"

"How long have you been outside the city?"

The girl seemed pretty sullen when he asked.

"Close to a week. I was seperated from the main group and ended up god knows where in my pajamas. I got lucky and found a mall that had a clothing store in it so I could get some better clothes for exploring. It wasn't long after that when I was attacked by those... Rippers, I believe you called them? How did you know I was from the city?"

Ethan scoffed.

"Please. Any Runner worth their salt could have avoided a small band of Rippers. At the very least they could have fought them off that scout party. Also, you didn't have a knife. All Runners carry at least one for situations where you can't outrun a problem."

The girl seemed to be a bit put out by his analysis of her mistakes. He took notice and decided to remedy the situation.

"Don't get offended. If you're from the city, there isn't any way you could have known what you were dealing with. Once those cuts are healed enough, I'll train you like I'm training them. their from the city too."

The girl looked up and noticed the siblings for the first time. She smiled, albeit a bit forced, and turned back the fire. Then Ethan realized something.

"We haven't even been properly introduced! My name's Ethan. The kids are Kyle and Cathy."

The girl looked turned to look at Ethan.

"I'm Ana."

* * *

Ana didn't know what to make of this 'Ethan' person. He was about her age, but he seemed much older. He had a look in his eyes that said "I know what I'm talking about, so don't even pretend otherwise" and he had demonstrated that he did indeed know what he was talking about. Part of that was probably due to him, apparently, growing up outside the walls and thus having a great advantage over most others in the environment. He seemed to mean well. He had, after all, taken in two kids from the city and apparently started to teach them how to survive.

Still, she was apprehensive about him. He didn't seem to be the type of person who would go out of their way to save a stranger. Especially since it would endanger his own life in an already hostile world.

She inwardly groaned. She was just being paranoid. Besides, even if we wasn't some good sameritan, he still saved her life. Plus there was the fact she couldn't leave if she wanted to. She had absolutely no idea of how to survive in this world beyond home and she was injured. She would just have to deal with it.

She snapped back to reality when she realized that he was offering her more food. More meat. She took it gratefully and ate it slowly this time. She didn't want to upset her stomach. After a few more minutes, she felt the painkillers really kick in. Her shoulder didn't hurt anymore. She wanted to get up and stretch her legs, but Ethan had already warned her that she could rip her stitches and create a worse problem.

Ana's gaze wandered over to the siblings, Kyle and Cathy. They were both resting against a wall. She was stunned by how young they were. They both had a similar look to their gaze as Ethan, only much more subdued. It was probably a side effect of their survival training. She turned to look at Ethan again. He was sifting through their supplies and frowning.

"We're running low on food. I'm gonna have to make a scavenging trip. Maybe I'll get lucky and find some wildlife."

He grabbed a pair of knives from one of the bags and attached them to his belt. He walked over to Ana's side and left a third knife beside her as well as an emergency syringe.

"That's an adrenaline shot. If any nasties come by, use it to get an edge. I'll worry about stitching you up when I get back, should it come to that."

She looked at him strangely.

"Why me? Why not let Kyle and Cathy handle it?"

He looked at her rather incredulously.

"Those pain killers must have you loopy. Do you really expect me to leave knives in the hands of two kids who haven't even reached double digits yet? No, they aren't getting any weapons until their at least ten years old, even more if I have my way. Besides, they don't have any combat training yet."

She had to agree with him and felt sort of silly, until she remembered his point about the pain killers.

"Now get some rest. I'll be gone for five minutes tops."

Ana didn't know what he could gather in five minutes, but she didn't question it. Her mind was already fogging over with exhaustion. Her last moments of sight were of Ethan climbing out of the shelter and out of sight.

* * *

Ethan hit the ground and began to run as quietly as he could, searching for anything edible. He chanced upon some edible plantlife and gathered as many a he could into a sack he had brought along. He kept moving until he stopped dead in his tracks.

There was a deer, not fifty feet away. He slowly pulled one of his knifes from it's sheath and raised his arm, pausing as the deer looked up from it's meal, surveying for danger. As soon as it's head dipped back down, he swung his arm forward at blinding speed. The knife spun through the air and struck the dear straight in the head, killing it instantly. He jogged over and hefted his prize over his shoulder before making a beeline back to the shelter, resisting the urge to whoop. Deer showed up fairly regularly in the grasslands, but they were nigh impossible to catch, let alone kill. They were extremely paranoid and very smart. He thanked the symbiote silently for is enhanced reflexes and aim, along with allowing him to remain absolutely still without straining to. He allowed the symbiote to form on his hands and feet so that he could haul the deer carcass up to the shelter.

Thankfully, Ana was asleep when he got back up. He didn't want her freaking out if she saw the symbiote. Kyle and Cathy were still apprehensive about it, but they knew it wasn't going anywhere and it had helped to save their lives more than once, so they coped. Ethan had told them that they were not to mention his 'friend' to Ana under any circumstances. Then both promised and that was that.

Ethan busied himself with cleaning the deer carcass. He sent them to go wait and not watch while he was working since it would be rather traumatizing. He did the dirty work in a corner where they wouldn't see him. They had been horrified the first time he came back with a dead animal, but they accepted that sometimes you have to do what you have to do in order to survive. That didn't mean they had to enjoy it.

Once he was satisfied, he buried the unwanted parts outside so as not to attract unwanted visitors. He knew that eventually some animal like a coyote would come by and find it, but that was something he could deal with. He grabbed some sharpened sticks and set them up to roast two strips of meat per person while he prepared the remainder of the meat for long term use. That meant lots of salt. Once the meat was prepared, he set it out on a flat rock next to the fire to dry out. Once he was satisfied with the dried meat, he tossed it all into a sack and placed it with all their other supplies.

By this point, the smell of the cooked meat had woken Ana up. Ethan gave her one of the sticks before doing the same for Kyle and Cathy. Everyone enjoyed the meal much more than their previous ones. Especially Kyle and Cathy, who's only alternative meat to the dried stuff as coyote meat. Nasty stuff. Once everyone was finished, Ethan doused the fire with the usual sack of dirt and everyone got settled in for the night. Ethan made sure that Ana was comfortable and went to his usual sleeping spot, where the symbiote could keep an eye on the opening.

* * *

Dr. Markus stood in front of three Gorgon soldiers. They were all in standard military wear and were listening intently as they were briefed on their mission.

"We have discovered that their are at least two symbiotes that were fighting against the invading symbiotes during the battle. Our information is limited at best, but we believe they may have fled to the nearby abandoned city.

"Concrete jungle? Makes sense that they slimy bastards would go there. Plenty of hidey holes for them, plus all those people from from up top were headed there. People to assimilate into their ranks."

Dr. Markus tutted exasperatedly.

"These particular symbiotes took no notice of any humans in the area. They only fought against other symbiotes. You have to stop thinking of them as normal symbiotes when they cvery clearly are not. We wish to capture them for research purposes. That is where you come in."

Dr. Markus tapped a few times on her ever present tablet computer.

"We will be sending you into the city to track down and capture one or both of the symbiotes alive. We have already prepared all the nessessary gear for your mission."

One of the soldiers scoffed.

"We have all the gear we need. Our gliders and guns will be more than enough to subdue them."

Dr. Markus tutted once again.

"You cannot use your standard gear for this operation. For one, you'll stand out like a sore thumb. We have prepared a kit for each of you that will let you blend into the world outside much easier. We will discuss that later. For now, here are images of your targets."

The images flashed up on a screen behind her. Medusa Leader immediately tensed up. The on on the right was the one that killed Viper leader. Her hands clenched into fists before she forced herself to calm down.

"Save it for when you track it down." She told herself. Meanwhile, Dr. Markus was moving on to other matters.

"We have spent a considerable amount of time over the years, observing the inhabitants of the world outside the city. They are divided into two groups. The first are savages and cannibals that live in groups, similar to a wolf pack. They seem to follow a social heirarchy, but we can't confirm. It is best to avoid them as much as possible."

By this point, they had reached a hanger where a small plane with giant turbines for wings was waiting for them. there were also three large cases were sitting in front of the ramp.

"The other group refer to themselves as World Runners, or just Runners for short. They are widely spaced out, normally not coming into contact with eachother. They are nomadic and survive by constantly running to various locations around North America, hence the name. We will be sending you in with a standard World Runner's kit so as to potentially lure out a symbiote."

The largest of the three assembled cleared his throat.

"What makes you so sure that being a Runner would draw out the targets?"

"Based on our observations of both targets, they far more intelligent than any symbiote we've seen. Therefore, it can be surmized that the host inside is intelligent. If the symbiote was bonded to one of the cannibals, it would likely be much more savage in nature."

The three soldiers opened their respective cases to look at the equipment. They all had green T-shirts and grey running shorts. They also had tough boots, a backpack with a water bottle and rations, and a set of long knives. Medusa leader also had something special. A wooden bow and a quiver of basic wooden arrows. However if one looked close enough, they would notice that the arrowheads were disguised and contained sharp needles with tiny syringes hidden in the arrowhead.

"The arrowheads are designed to inject a powerful sleeping agent that should knock out both the host and the symbiote. Make your shots count."

The group grabbed their kits and got changed before returning to the ship. Dr. Markus was still waiting in front of them.

"We've added a tracking beacon to your belts. When you're ready for extraction, press the large button. You will be entering via stealth chute under the cover of darkness. Good luck."

The team saluted and walked into the belly of the ship before strapping in. Once on board, they did a once over on their equipment before the ship took off and rose into the cloud cover. The turbines made little noise as they skimmed over the clouds.

"Reaching drop point in thirty seconds. You'll be two clicks from the city. prepare to jump. They dropped below the clouds and waited. They all stood up and looked at the ramp. A red light turned on and they all took a deep breath in anticipation while slipping on oxygen masks. The ramp opened and they braced against the sudden rush of air. A ding went off and they all sprinted forward and leapt from the plane. After a while, they pulled their chutes and glided to the ground. Once there, they disconnected the chutes and took off in different directions for the city. The hunt was on.

**Okay, no drama in this one. Sorry. I probably hyped you all up for this one right? Ah well, it'll be there soon. Thanks for sticking around! Also, in the future, I will be referring to Medusa leader as Medusa for short. I don't know how anyone would have been confused, but I'm sure someone would have pointed it out to be one of those smug jerks on the internet.**


	13. Chapter 13

**(Sigh) What a beautiful day. The sun is shining, birds are singing, and I'm parked behind a computer screen with giant bug eyes. Yo, Creativity! Do you smell that?**

**Creativity: Smell what boss?**

**Author: The smell of a new chapter! It's got that new car smell, with a hint of peppermint.**

**Creativity: That's what that was? I thought that was someone's new cologne.**

**Author: Well, now that we've taken care of that, I can get back to addressing the audience! Then I'll go back to freaking out over the new Doctor Strange video that Marvel released... I need to get out more. (It'll be old news by the time this is released)**

**Hello everyone, and welcome back! I trust that the wait wasn't too long. **

**Audience member: It was! I have nothing else going on in my life other than this website and I expect you to be the same!**

**Author: Security, would you kindly please remove the gentleman in the first row from the studio? Thank you.**

**Well, with that overwith, I can safely say that the drama I promised last chapter but didn't deliver on (because I'm a horrible person like that) is coming this chapter! YAY! Also, I would like to answer this since people keep asking me about it:**

**No, Spider man will not be appearing in this whatsoever. This was always going to be a strictly symbiote based story and will remain so until completed. I will say however, that if you want to create a deviated story line, contact me and let me know! Fact of the matter is that stories like this are people saying "You know, I like this, but what if it had this?! Or that?!" So why not do that with stories like this one? **

**Also, please indulge me on this bit of annoyed whining, but I really get personally annoyed when I see the disclaimers on stories. Seriously! We don't need to do this! The website is literally called ! Fanfiction, to my knowledge is not copyright infringing, and even if it was, no one is going to waste money trying to fight a legal battle with you over it! **

**Well, now that my crying over something rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things is over, I present chapter 13!**

Medusa leader grumbled under her breath as she roamed the 'concrete jungle'. She had been her for approaching twenty four hours and so far, all she had found was crumbling buildings, cracked and upheaved concrete, plantlife forcing it's way through the cracks in the ground and the occasional bird fluttering around. She was keeping in radio contact with her teammates, who were in other sections of the city. It was approaching nightfall and she didn't want to be caught out in the dark. She checked in a nearby building for signs of habitation and upon concluding it was safe, ducked inside and settled into the darkest corner she could find and fell asleep.

* * *

Ethan was up early today. He was sitting on his perch, deep in thought. He also was having a discussion with the symbiote, who was very suspicious of Ana.

_"Something just feels... Off with her. I don't know how else to explain it."_

"Well stow it. They'll be up soon and I don't want to spook Ana by talking to thin air."

Ethan was proved right when just a few minutes later, Ana groaned a little and pushed herself up. Ethan noted that she didn't seem to feel any pain. He walked over and knelt down beside her.

"Hey, easy there. Lets check those stitches."

He rolled back her sleeve and saw that the wound have closed enough to remove the stitches altogether. Pleased with this, he checked her shoulder next. The cut was still a bit worrying to him, but he did notice improvement. He spent the next while removing the stitches in her arm before wrapping it in gauze again. He wasn't leaving it to chance. He also rewrapped her shoulder. Once his medical duties were taken care of, he started to work on breakfast. The heavily salted deer meat was rehydrated and roasted on sticks as well as a mixture of roots for some variety. By the time he was done cooking, the siblings had gotten up and were waiting for him to dish out.

After breakfast, he had them start the usual workout while he took Ana over to the gap and began teaching her about things to look for in the world, such as finding caches or avoid Ripper hideouts. She absorbed the information much easier than the siblings. Once they were done, he started their first combat lesson. He gave them sticks carved to crudely resemble knives and began teaching them the basics. Ana watched the whole time, knowing that once her arm was finished healing, she would be going through this training regimin. She simply rolled her shoulders, wincing a bit at the action before going back to watching Ethan teach Kyle and Cathy the basics for fight with and without a knife.

"Knives are the easiest weapons to fight with. Their light and there isn't much of a learning curve to them. One of the most important things to know is your stance when fighting. Most fights are going to be with Rippers and you can usually figure out what you're dealing with based on the weaponry. Most Rippers use their fists to fight, but a good portion of them also use bludgeons of any sort. Knives you won't see very often. They're typically used by higher ranking Rippers. If you can take out the higher ranking individuals in a group, the rest will typically just leave."

He went on, teaching them more about stance and how it can affect how you fight. He demonstrated a few times with the wooden knives and his fists what he was going to be teaching them. Most of what he demonstrated revolved around use of the arms. Punches, elbows, hammer blows and the like, but he did show a few kicks off as well. His knifeplay was actually really interesting. He often used various stabs, not often slashing.

"Slashes are painful, but thats about it. Pain isn't something that slows a Ripper down. Not enough to make a meaningful difference anyway. Stabs have more potential for damage and you can follow it up easier with a punch or kick."

As the day wore on however, she got bored. She was starting to feel cooped up in this building. She wanted to stretch her legs more, do some running.

Almost as though he read her mind, Ethan said:

"You aren't going anywhere. Not until that shoulder has healed satisfactorily. I give it a day or two before you're back up and running."

She groaned and walked to Ethan's perch and sat down, watching the street below.

* * *

Medusa leader really wanted to find something moving, just to break the monetony. She had been here for a grand total of ninety six hours and she was going out of her mind with boredom. Sure, she hadn't expected to find either target in a couple of days, but when all she could do was wander her section of the city and hope for the best, it irked her. alot.

She eventually came to a decision. The road divided, going left, right and straight. She examined each road for a few seconds before she saw movement down the right path. She slipped behind cover and peered around the corner, hoping that she found something to eleviate the boredom. Her hope was rewarded as she could see three 'shamblers' as she had decided to call them after the briefing wandering across the path. Once she was certain she would not be seen she snuck out and darted from cover to cover. She climbed up a wrecked building and watched as they continued down the street. Several more joined the group and kept heading towards a large building. She turned and skillfully leapt from building to building before she got to the site where all the Shamblers were gathering. Now that she saw them, they didn't really seem to shamble that much. They walked mostly normally, save for how hunched over they were and how some of them occasionally walked on all fours.

Medusa leader continued on and descended from the last building before peering in from a gap in the wall. She resisted the urge to curse.

There were hundreds of cannibals inside. Some of them were fighting amongst eachother, some were 'speaking' to eachother and others were just lazing around. She didn't think twice. She turned and ran the other way, climbed up a building again and returned to hunting her objective. On the plus side, neither her nor her teammates would be running into many, if any, of the cannibals.

* * *

Ethan got up to find that everyone else was also up. He looked to see it was still about the time he got up, based on the position of the sun. He shook the sleep from his head and went to check Ana's arm and shoulder. After a quick look he smiled and said:

"You're good to go. The wounds haven't completely healed yet, but you shouldn't have to worry about reopening them."

Ana was relieved. Finally, she could put all her pent up energy to good use. Ethan seemed to have the same idea.

"Kyle and Cathy can lead you through the morning exercises while I get to work on breakfast."

So they did just that. Today they were having canned beans since everyone was sick of meat. He got the frying pan out and grabbed two cans of beans while everyone else did the workout. By the end of it, everyone was exhausted. He handed a water bottle to the siblings and shared one with Ana. Once breakfast was done, Ethan set about cleaning the frying pan while drilling everyone about the do's and do not's of survival. He also began putting together a kit for Ana. Since she was around his age, her training was going to go much faster. She was already able to do around thirty pushups before the training began, so she joined in on the combat lessons. She found it strange that she was being taught the same material as two children who hadn't even reached ten years of age, but I guess that didn't matter. According to Ethan, he started knife training when he was Cathy's age. When she asked him who taught him however, Ethan refused to speak further on the matter. It seemed much of his past was rather touchy, unless he told them. He wouldn't stand for being questioned about it. A well. Thats how it went, she supposed. She was so lost in thought, she didn't even notice that Ethan was just finished preparing dinner. He had been lucky and happened upon some wild spices, so tonights meal was significantly better in terms of taste. After that, it was off to bed for everyone.

Ethan waited until he was sure everyone was asleep before allowing the symbiote to form into his costume and swing onto the roof. He had a strange feeling. Something that was make the hairs on the back of his neck raise up. He figured some time on the roof would help calm him down. Plus, he wanted to talk to the symbiote.

"Can you sense if any other symbiotes are nearby?"

_"I can only find them if they are chattering to eachother, rather loudly might I add. I didn't spend a lot of time interacting with them so I can only pick things up when they are really excited, angry or otherwise and very vocal about it."_

Ethan groaned.

"So one could be on top of us and you wouldn't know."

_"By that point, I would be able to hear it talking. They rarely shut up. They just have a great jump in how loud or quiet they are."_

"Good to know. I guess we should head back, just in case anyone wakes up and freaks out."

He got back inside and went to his preferred corner before dropping into sleep.

The next day, they went through the whole routine again before Ethan decided to go on another scavenger run.

"Just stay inside until I'm back okay?"

Ethan left swiftly. He ran as fast as he could, looking for anything useful. He did get extremely and found an old cooking pot and a nicked and battered thermos in a supply cache. He then went and found another bedroll! that was a keeper. He spent a bit longer than usual searching since Ana was on her feet and could defend the siblings should it come to that. finally he decided that he had done enough searching and made his way back to camp. He had just made to the top when he froze. Ana was standing in between the kids and a woman who had a bow and arrow trained on them.

* * *

Medusa leader hear heart heart pumping in her chest, the blood roaring past her ears. She had found the biggest lead yet in their mission.

She had the past few days since finding the massive gathering of cannibals roaming the streets with nothing to show for her efforts. She had been walking past a building when she thought she saw movement on one of the floors above her. She climbed up quickly and found the two kids that she and Viper leader had found on the night of the invasion. She snarled and drew her bow, only to find some kid standing in between them and her. She had a knife, but by the looks of things, she had little to no experience actually using it. She was half tempted to simply shoot her and then question the kids, but she restrained herself. Instead she decided to try the easy way first.

"Where's your slimy little friend?"

The girl standing between them looked confused.

"What do you mea..."

"Don't play dumb with me! I know he took you two out of the city and all the way here! Where is he?!"

The kids refused to so much as open their mouths, but she could see the fear in their eyes. She'd get it out of them. At the very least they could be used as bait.

"Well, seeing as you won't tell me what I want to know, I guess I'll just make you tell me. Now how best..."

She didn't even finish the sentence when someone grabbed her shoulder and spun it around before a fist connected with her jaw. She stumbled back to see some punk standing in front of her. He had a knife clutched in his right hand, held backwards. He raised it in front of him and took on a fighting stance. Medusa leader snarled and charged him. The boy bared his teeth and swung the knife for a shoulder stab. She spun sideways and brought her knee up into his chest before slamming her elbow down on his shoulder blade. The kid fell down, holding his stomach and dropping his knife. Medusa pulled her own knife and raised it to end the punk. Then he swung his foot around and swiped her feet out from under her. She felt his foot kick the knife away before she swung her leg up and kicked him in the back. The kid rolled with the kick and sprung up on his feet before charging her and delivering a powerful punch to her sternum before grabbing her head and forcing it down towards his rapidly approaching knee. He then jumped to the other foot and kicked her away. She shook her head, then felt blood trickling out of her nose. She grabbed a piece of concrete and hurled it at him then charged, drawing her second knife. The kid barely got out of the way before she slashed him across the chest before roundhouse kicking him in the head. The kid collapsed. She scowled as she marched over to her bow and grabbed it, knocking another arrow and aiming at the kids.

"Congrats, you just signed their death warrants."

She let the arrow fly.

It never hit. Instead, a black webline hit the arrow and snapped it upward , causing it to go wide. Everyone looked to see the boy was now being incased in a black costume with a grey spider symbol and white eyes. Medusa went for another arrow, but the symbiote moved faster. It sprang forward, pinning her to the wall. She felt a powerful fist collide with her face, chest, arms, whatever. she was being pummeled like a rookie.

"Stop!"

Medusa heard the older girl scream and opened her eyes a crack to see the symbiote had been about to punch her again, but had indeed stopped. It turned to the girl and the kids before grabbing them and swinging out of the building, leaving her to collapse from pain and exhaustion. Just before she blacked out, she raised her arm and called her team.

"Hey guys, I may have found and then lost one of the targets."

* * *

Ethan's mind was locked in a loop of 'gotta get somewhere safe, gotta get somewhere safe, gotta get...' He didn't know who had attacked them, but she was obviously not to be underestimated.

Whoever she was, she was a skilled fighter, and stronger than anyone with her build would be reasonably. He had the symbiote helping him subliminally throughout that fight and she still managed to get a knife blow in. Also, her fighting style was unusual. It was too precise and mechanical. Like it was drilled into her.

He may have been teaching Kyle and Cathy basics for knifeplay, but it was more so that they would stand a better chance against some who was just flailing around. That woman had was once again, too mechanical in combat to be a Runner. Not that it mattered when he went full suit. Sure it helped with an even greater boost to his speed, strength, agility and reaction time, but he was more counting on shock value.

He was worried though. If Ana hadn't screamed at him, he might have beaten that woman until she died. He hadn't even noticed how bad it was getting until he stopped to look. He had panicked when he saw her loose the arrow at the siblings and Ana, not even thinking. He just needed to protect them.

Once he landed, the siblings walked haphazardly to the wall and sat down next to it, disoriented from the trip. Ana however, pushed him away, her eyes wide and frightened.

"Get away from me!"

Ethan stopped, somewhat shocked. The symbiote pulled away from his face as he turned to face her.

"Calm down, we're safe!"

"Safe?!" She cried hysterically.

"How are me and those two safe?! You're one of them! She was after you!"

Ethan paused, surprised by this new information.

"What? Why would she be after me?"

"Why wouldn't she be?! You're a host!"

Ethan crossed his arms.

"I get that you're scared and you have every right to be. But I just saved you. Again. Don't you think if I wanted to hurt you I would have done it already?"

Ana just laughed, still hysterical.

"I don't know! I don't know what's going on inside that thing's mind! For all I know you've been secretly calling in all your little slimey friends to take us over!"

Ethan's face fell into a frown.

"I wouldn't do that! This symbiote saved my life, and allowed me to take out a good number of symbiotes that were invading your city! Why would I kill them off if I was one of them!"

"Don't even try convincing me you're human! You aren't not anymore! How would you have stayed free all this time?! All you've been feeding us is lies!"

"Don't you dare accuse me of lying and don't even pretend to know anything about living out here! You've been able to live the high life! You've been able to go to sleep without fearing for you're life or worse! Wake up comfortable and not sleeping on rocks! Live day to day without fleeing from a predator, knowing that one wrong step and you die!"

"I lost my parents to your kind!"

"Everyone present in this room lost their parents! Don't even try to use that as an excuse!"

"EXCUSE?! ONLY SOMETHING AS MONSTROUS AND UNFEELING AS YOUR KIND WOULD DARE CLAIM THAT I'M USING MY PARENTS AS AN EXCUSE!"

Ethan lost it at this. He punched his hand through the wall in rage.

"I'M NOT ONE OF THEM! YOU HEAR ME?! I'M NOT A MONSTER! AND IF YOU CAN'T STAND ME, THEN YOU CAN LEAVE! HERE'S AN EXIT!"

He punched his other arm through the wall and tore out a hole for her. He turned and hurled it into the shadows before stalking. Ana glared at him before storming out of the hole he had torn in the building and climbing down before running off into the ghost city.

She ran for only a short distance before ducking into a building. She scrunched herself into a corner and began to weep. Not too far off, she heard someone bellowing into the air.

**Well, how was that?! This one took longer to write than my other chapters (Pardoning the two year gap of course) But I'm very satisfied with it. When I started this story, I wanted to spend the first few chapters establishing how different Ana's and Ethan's lives were. I also never originally intended for Ana to get rid of her symbiote, but I think it adds more drama. I also wanted to use this argument to show that while she thought she was over her anger at the symbiotes at first, it's very clear that she isn't. She was just desperate. Now that she wasn't at such a low point, she fell back into her anger.**

**Creativity: I think you're overdoing it boss.**

**Author: Shut up.**

**Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed! Also, I would like to pose a little request. One thing that was happening for a while was that I was getting a review once every chapter (Roughly) and that's kinda slowed down. So, If I could get one review for every chapter, that would be very encouraging to keep writing. Heck, it might even make the chapters longer! Who doesn't like that?! Well, I thing that's enough for now.**

**Next chapter, I forecast a 60% chance of punching! See ya then!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hello everyone! I get the feeling you were expecting Creativity to be opening here. Well, he did some overtime work and we've got some extra juice in the B.T.I. so I gave him the day off. But rest assured, he'll be back next week. **

**You wouldn't know this, but I actually took a brief break from writing for a few days from writing and I also started working on another building block of my master plan. I got a feeling you're gonna like it. That's all for now! Enjoy chapter 14!**

Ethan was incredibly restless. Ever since his row with Ana, he'd been unable to sit still for more than a few minutes. Sure he could occupy himself with training Kyle and Cathy, but they could only go so long. He'd been thinking a lot about what she had called him. A monster.

He knew she had only called him that because she wasn't thinking straight, but it still clung to his brain. He kept flashing back to that soldier he had pushed off the roof and the woman he had nearly beaten to death a few days ago. It scared him. Was he really becoming a monster? Was this because of the symbiote?

He spent a lot of time pacing. On the floor, on the walls, occasionally on the ceiling, trying to figure out why he was acting this way and why it had only started recently. He thought deeply on what the two situations had in common. First off, both of them he was in a state of panic. That much he knew. Secondly, both had Kyle and Cathy in danger. He had been trying to protect them.

He had told himself early on that it was the spur of the moment and his adrenaline spiking, but eventually he forced himself to accept that he had been in many similar jams and he had never killed so much as a Ripper, as far from humanity they were. What had changed now?

The obvious answer was the symbiote, but Ethan felt that the answer wasn't obvious. If this was the symbiote, there would have been other signs wouldn't there?

He didn't talk to the symbiote about this, for obvious reasons. He already knew that it would be fruitless. Fact of the matter was, the symbiote wouldn't tell him if this was happening because of it because he would force it off if he did. Besides, he needed it, at least for now. With Kyle and Cathy around, he couldn't do everything he did and protect them. Especially now that someone was hunting them.

His thoughts returned to the mysterious woman with the bow. He had encountered a few Runners with bows before, but they were not a common sight. Add to the fact that any kind of Runner was a rare sight and you had something that was just a little less rare than a wild herd of deer. Runners with bows typically travelled slower, trying to build up rations before making a slow trek to the next hunting ground. Wash, rinse, repeat.

This woman was something else though. He hadn't noticed it until he thought back on it, but the knives were very new and completely foreign to him. They were slotted on the blunt side of the blade and about two inches longer than the average knife of a Runner. Plus, her clothes didn't have nearly enough wear on them. Why was he only noticing this now?

He was interupted by the realization that it was getting late. They had finished dinner twenty minutes ago and the siblings were getting ready to sleep. He turned and motioned for them to walk over to the opening in the wall. He lay down and stared up at the stars. They looked at him curiously.

"Do you two know anything about the night sky? The stars, constellations?"

Cathy seemed to perk up.

"Papa used to show us constellations and tell us stories about them!"

Ethan smiled a bit at her enthusiasm, but noticed her become crestfallen after a few moments.

"How many can you point out to me?"

Kyle and Cathy took turns pointing them out before Ethan held up a hand to silence them.

"You know, you can tell what time of year it is by looking at the stars in the sky. You see up there, that cluster of stars tells us that it's approaching the end of summer. They also tell me that North is that way. From there, I know where South, West and East are."

Then he realized the implications of what he just said. It was approaching fall. It was going to get cold soon. He needed to start heading south. He closed his eyes and thought about it. He had left all their previously gained gear behind when they fled, so he needed to replenish his stock. He had already gotten them enough food to last them a while, but he needed to get more water. Luckily, there were some fresh water ponds and rivers along the path, based on the constellations. Plus, there were actually a lot of wild roots and other foods he could find along the way. Still, he couldn't leave it to chance.

"You two get to sleep. I'm going to take you scavenging tomorrow."

They both got somewhat excited at this. This was going to be their first scavenging trip. They settled in and fell asleep rather quickly. Ethan couldn't though. His thoughts had turned back to Ana. She didn't know about the approaching winter and he highly doubted she would survive on her own. Provided she hadn't gotten herself killed already.

* * *

"Let me get this straight. You found three random kids in a building, pulled your bow on them, and threatened to hurt and/or kill them if they didn't tell you where the target was?"

Medusa leader fought the urge to punch her teammate in the face.

"Yes."

"And when you did this, the target showed up, beat you senseless, grabbed you and took off?"

Medusa clenched her teeth.

"Obviously."

Her teammate shook his head.

"Why did you threaten those three kids in the first place? That's pretty cold."

Medusa rounded on him.

"I told you before, I encountered the target on the night of the attack! He killed Viper leader when he attacked those kids and took off with them! They didn't even try to fight back! They obviously knew where he was!"

Her teammate looked at her with the same incredulous look as when she told them before.

"Look, even if I believed you, you said that Viper leader tried to attack those kids! If you're telling the truth then that it really cold! I would have fought back if I saw someone threatening two kids!"

Medusa leader grabbed a knife from her belt.

"That thing is not human! Don't even pretend otherwise! It ripped Viper leader's board apart and threw him off a skyscraper! I will teach that body snatching bastard what it means to cross humanity, and you won't stop me!"

Once she finished her tirade, she realized that she had pulled a knife on one of her teammates and immediately put it back. She turned and marched out of the building they had been staying in.

"He could be anywhere, but he'll move slow. dragging around two kids and a teenager will force him to slow to their pace. We spread out again, try to find them."

The third member of the team turned to her.

"This time, try to radio us before you get your ass kicked."

She clenched her teeth as she nodded and took off down a path. This time, she wouldn't miss the shot.

* * *

Ethan and the siblings were having an easier time than he anticipated. They had come across a cache of water bottles as well as some edible plants. Once they were stored, he led them back to their new shelter and started preparing a sparse meal to conserve their food for the long trip. Once he was done, he waited until the stars started coming out again and taught them more on navigating based on the night sky. When he decided that they had spent a satisfactory amount of time on the lesson, he went over to his new watch-spot. They would have to set out soon. He had enough food packed for about a week if they ate sparsely. Wouldn't be enough, but it was a good start. That wasn't even taking into account the possibility of happening across food while traveling!

He spent a few more minutes thinking of how much food they would need as well as how long it would take to get there. Once he had the proper makings of a plan, he settled down and went to sleep.

The next morning, he and the siblings got up and went through the morning rituals before he informed them of his plan to travel south. He outlined the basic nessesities as well as how their days would look, how much everyone would need to carry, etc. Then Cathy piped up.

"What about Ana? Are we bringing her along?"

Ethan sighed a bit.

"She's long gone by now. Even if I could track her down, I doubt she would come with us. Sorry shortstack."

She frowned a bit when he called her shortstack. He'd been doing that for a while and it annoyed her. He also started calling Kyle stringbean. She pushed her annoyance aside and kept asking.

"Can we try? Please?"

Ethan shook his head.

"I just told you why we can't. She won't come with us. Not while I have my... passenger."

She frowned even more.

"Why does it make her so angry? Me and Kyle are okay with it."

Ethan smiled sadly.

"Not everyone is you two and it's pointless to try and make them like you. You can't force people to change. No matter how hard you try."

He noticed Cathy starting to sulk a little.

"Tell you what kid. I'll go looking for her the night before we leave. If I find her and she's okay to go, we'll take her with us. Okay?"

Cathy brightened up considerably.

"Okay!"

Ethan smiled a little more. He finished the meal of the morning and they set out to do more gathering. He could feel a little relief in his being able to get back on the move.

* * *

Ana wandered throughout the city, trying to find something to eat. She had used what little she remembered from Ethan's lessons with the siblings to track down a little food as well as a water bottle, but she was still hungry. She was also feeling really tired. It had been a while since she last slept, but she didn't want to go to sleep in the middle of the day. Besides, she also needed to keep an eye out for that strange woman who had attacked them the other day. She doubted that they would give up easily. Especially since they had seen Ethan in action.

Speaking of Ethan, she was starting to regret some of the things she had said. Since the moment they met Ethan had saved her life twice, nursed her back to health, made sure everyone in the group was fed and had water. He took care of all of them. And how did she repay him? By calling him a monster and taking out all her anger about her recent misfortune out on him.

Some friend she turned out to be.

She wanted to go back, but she doubted he would let her back after her outburst. Besides, she was hopelessly lost. She had wandered aimlessly the day after she left, not really paying attention to her surroundings. She did see a few Rippers at one point, but they seemed too focused on heading somewhere to notice her.

Whatever the case, it was going to be night soon. She had to get somewhere safe to wait out the night.

She made up her mind. The next day, she was going to try and backtrack and attempt to find the little group. She had to at least apologize for what she said.

She selected a nearby building with a tree growing out of it. After checking that it was deserted, she found a nest of roots she could hide in and settled in to sleep.

**This took longer for me to write than I thought. By the time I finished this, chapter 10 was already up. I might take a week or two without uploads to rebuild my reserve of chapters so that I don't vanish like last time. Maybe not. I guess we'll find out. See ya!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hey everyone! I'm back from vacation! I can't believe that the boss actually let me have another one! Well, since I didn't take a very... extended one this time, let me be the first to say that me and everyone else here at the studio are really excited to have reached chapter 15. Five more and we reach twenty! Without further ado, let me welcome back the boss man!**

**Author: Thanks, Creativity! I'm glad to be back! But I do have some depressing news.**

**I'm starting to lose steam on the story shtick. I won't ditch it for two years like last time, but I am starting to tucker out. So I need inspiration. Where do I find it? Well, let me say this. I WANT YOU! Rather, I want your input. I want character concepts, feedback, etc. Even if I don't nessesarily use it, I can tell you that it will mean a lot that someone who has no idea who I am besides this story and has ideas of their own to enrich it for everyone else who partakes of this.**

**Alright, enough flapping my gums. You wanted chapter fifteen? Here it is!**

**P.S. Sorry that this is late. I was experiencing internet issues and couldn't get online to update this. Hopefully it won't happen again. Just thought I'd get that out of the way so as to dissuade any worries that this story was taking another long hiatus.**

It was roughly one day from the date of departure that Ethan had decided upon. Between him and the siblings, they had enough food and water to get them roughly over three quarters of the way there if they ate more often than usual and didn't find any food along the way. Not enough to get all the way there, but close enough. Ethan had started having them take their backpacks of supplies and hauling them along with them on scavenging trips as a means of preparing them for the long trek.

Cathy had worn him down and convinced him to do a two day search for Ana. He had already completed a one day search, but had no luck. He got back around midnight, judging by the night sky, to find them both wide awake. He sent them off to bed as quick as he could and lay down himself. He found himself feeling a bit disappointed that he didn't find a trace of her, but whatever. He just hoped nothing got to her first. Or no one.

That strange woman was still out there. He had spent some time looking for traces of her too, but she wasn't anywhere near them. He was certain of that.

He was half tempted to go back to the old shelter and see if any of their stockpile was still there. He imagined that the woman had taken some of it, but she wouldn't be able to carry all of it. Not practically anyway. Mostly, he wanted medical supplies. He could make due with his webbing and some sticks, but that still didn't help if they got a really bad cut or something similar. Then he heard something in the streets.

It was faint. He had to strain to hear it. A steady thump thump thump of light feet impacting concrete. Ethan jumped up and slipped down into the streets. It was getting louder.

He slipped into a shadowy outcropping on the ground floor of the building and whistled six notes quickly. Three high notes followed by three low notes. The running slowed and another six note whistle pierced the silence. Three low notes followed by three high notes. Ethan picked up a small rock and tapped it twice on a wall. Then waited a few seconds before doing it again. Eventually, a man in his early twenties was easily visible. He was thin, but muscled and had a collossal beard.

"Haven't heard the Runner's call in a while, kid. What didn't know anyone else was around."

Ethan didn't break his neutral expression.

"You know that the city got invaded?"

The man didn't shift.

"Found a bunch of sobs near the outskirts and got the story from a kid. Gave him some rehydrated meat as thanks. He's lucky the adults didn't find out."

"Yeah. I saw them too. I actually found a couple of kids that were seperated from their parents. Apparently they didn't make it out. I've been training them."

The man barked in laughter.

"Ha! You look like you just barely finished your training!"

Ethan scowled now.

"Didn't get the chance to finish it. They didn't last long enough."

The man became more sympathetic.

"Oh. You were there during the massacre."

"Don't bring it up. Either way, you're right. Those kids have got the basics down as well as some combat training, but I can't finish it. They convinced me to go and look for they're older sibling whom they lost when they got here. I'm going to look again tomorrow. Either way, they need to know what I don't. Can you finish what I started?"

The man seemed contemplative.

"What do I get out of this."

"I've got a stockpile going as well as preparations for the fall run. I can get another kit ready for you and I'll accompany you and them down south. I'll even leave you all my supplies when I take off."

The man smiled.

"I think we have a deal. What's your name kid?"

"Ethan. Yours?"

"Call me Blaine."

* * *

Medusa stormed through the streets, resisting the urge to shout in anger. She had overturned practically every rock in this blasted city, but it seemed as though they had vanished face of the earth! Thinking about it, she shouldn't have been surprised. She found them by pure chance last time. They were sure to be extra careful from here on out to avoid being found again.

"I swear, I will find that godforsaken muckball if it's the last thing I do."

She continued to grumble under her breath in frustration. It was starting to get dark. She should head for cover.

Then it struck her. The night sky would prove to be excellent camoflauge for the target. Now that she had spooked them, they would probably tend to operate more under the cover of darkness. She needed a vantage point.

After picking a building with the third floor still intact, she settled into a confortable watchpoint and watched the horizon for any movement to tip her off. She had a feeling her luck was going to turn around.

* * *

Ethan had finished the introductions with the siblings and Blaine when he noticed that it was starting to get dark out. He turned to Blaine and motioned to the kids.

"Can you keep an eye on them while I go look for the sister I mentioned earlier?"

"Go ahead. I'll make sure they're still alive when you get back."

Despite his intimidating appearance, Blaine was actually a really friendly soul as well as an exeptionally skilled Runner. He turned out to be a much better hunter than most other Runners as well as a fighter. He showed them all a bunch of scars he had gotten when he was eighteen and had to fight off a pack of Rippers. He ended up killing them all.

Ethan shook his head and slipped out the hole in the wall before dropping to the ground and sprinting off into the distance. Once he was certain that he was a safe distance away he had the symbiote form his suit and swung off into the air. He kept somewhat low and used the symbiote's night vision to scan the ground for any signs of movement. Then he began inspecting the buildings. Nothing.

He kept delving further into the city and to his surprise, and delight, found the building that they had stayed in previously. He approached with caution however. He didn't want to be surprised. Once he was sure that it was safe he slipped inside to find that he had been right. They had taken some of his supplies, but he was still relieved that there was a large quantity of food left over. He grabbed a fair amount and swung back to the shelter. He switched back to normal and deposited the food, saying that he found a stockpile that looked abandoned. After that, he left again. He retraced his steps, checking the buildings thoroughly. Then he heard thunder sound.

There was a storm coming and he didn't want to be caught in it.

He swung around to head back, but then the symbiote drew his attention to a small group of Rippers who were converging on a building nearby. He changed direction and slipped through a hole in the side wall. His heart stopped for a moment when he saw the Rippers converging on someone in a blue hoody, black tank top, black sweatpants with blue lines running down the side, and blue with black runners. It was Ana!

He leapt from the wall and dove into the fray, his fists clenched with determination to beat them into a thin paste.

* * *

Ana was cursing her luck over and over. She had been trying to find her way back to the building that Ethan had picked when he dragged them to safety from that crazy woman with the bow and arrows when she tripped and hit her knee pretty bad. It had forced her to move slower and take longer and more frequent breaks to rest. On top of it all, the knife wounds had started to bug her. They didn't hurt, but they were definitely aggrevated. She was starting to feel hopeless again. Just like after she got rid of her own symbiote.

She turned a corner and kept trudging along, wincing occasionally when her knee bugged her. She sat down and took a drink of water from an old plastic water bottle. She had found it in an cache and it tasted really plastic-y and stale. She waited a few more minutes before continuing onward. She got up and pushed forward until she heard something that sounded like a rock being displaced. Her hand dropped to a knife she had found in one of the caches. It appeared to be an old hunting knife. She almost drew it, but refrained. She looked around, but didn't see anything to indicate what had happened.

She kept going, now much more alert. It was almost night and she wanted to cover more ground before bedding down for the night. After some time, she felt like she was being watched. Then she heard another stone fall. She spun around and saw a man with a scarred face and bloodshot eyes standing on top of a section of fallen concrete. The man's chest was heaving up and down. His fingernails were eerily talon-esq. He tilted his head back and howled. Almost instantly, more people sprang from hiding places and bellowed as well, charging down after her. She turned and ran, ignoring her knee's violent protests. She sprinted as fast as she could, looking for any way she could lose her pursuers.

She noticed that the sun was just about to drop below the horizon. How did she not notice this before?! She kept going. She turned around a corner and slipped inside a building, hoping she was safe. She waited and saw several of them run past. Then the one that appeared to be the leader turned and sniffed the air. He bellowed again and the whole pack stopped. the leader stalked inside and hissed like an animal. His eyes seemed to glow in the dark. He snarled and leapt on top of a piece of rubble, glaring at Ana, who had been hiding there. She backed up hastily and drew her knife. She held it in front of her and did her best to appear threatening. She knew it wouldn't help. There was a whole pack behind the leader and they were hungry. She raised her knife for a final stand when suddenly, a person hurtled down from the ceiling and began to mercilessly pummel the pack to the ground. She couldn't make out who was fighting, but she could hazard a guess. Ethan had come to her aid again.

She watched in awe as he leapt from one Ripper to the next, taking them out in one or two hits each. Sometimes he even took out several at once. Soon enough, the pack was turning tail and fleeing from him. She took a few steps forward as the last few scrambled out the holes in the wall before she suddenly felt like her shoulder and arm were on fire. She screamed in surprise and pain and collapsed. Ethan rushed over to her and pushed her sleeve back before letting out a string of colorful curses. Despite the pain, she looked over to see what the problem was before she felt herself suddenly feel very dizzy. The wound from the knife when Ethan first saved her had what looked like little black veins leading away from it under her skin. The area around the veins looked pale and sickly. She was sweating bullets. Ethan continued cursing as he picked her up bridal style and sprinted out of the building. Several strands of symbiote mass wrapped around her, making sure that he could swing with only one arm while holding onto her with just one, seeing as both her arms were out of commision. She felt the dizziness getting worse and the whole world went black.

* * *

Ethan landed and sprinted fast as he let the symbiote costume melt away and he started carrying her properly. He had never seen this before! What was going on?!

He reached the shelter and yelled for Blaine to hurry over to the edge. Ethan slung her over his shoulder in a fireman's lift and climbed up the vines as fast as he could. Once up, he showed the wound to Blaine, who began to swear even more colorfully.

"This is not good. Not good at all!"

"What the hell is it?!"

"I guess you wouldn't know about it if you never finished your training. It's called Rippers' Venom. It's an infection that one can get from encounters with Rippers. It's extremely painful and difficult to cure!"

"How did we not notice it before?!"

"It takes a long period of time for it to incubate and symptoms don't show until much later! We're lucky that it only just kicked in, otherwise she would be in much more serious danger!"

"Can we do anything?!"

There is an herb that can cure it and a few herbs that can slow it down. You grind the herbs into a paste and put it directly in the wound. I'll go look for the cure, you find the ones that can hinder it's progress! The one's you're looking for are a six leafed plant, that's three on each side that look like a flat triangular blade, and another that can be found growing out of moss. It has a red flower on it. Lets move!"

Ethan nodded and left as fast as possible, looking for the herbs Blaine had described. Blaine then turned to the siblings.

"Hold her down and make sure that she doesn't hurt herself! If you need to, tie her up!"

The two Runners departed swiftly and searching for the herbs.

"What are you looking for?"

"The root of a plant that grows underground. The herbs that slow it down grow above ground. Go!"

Ethan sprinted away, waiting until Blaine was out of sight before allowing his symbiote to form his costume. He covered much more area this way and soon found a small patch of the herbs Blaine told him to find. He grabbed them and made his way back as fast as he could, unaware that he was being watched. A pair of eyes watched from the shadows of a collapsed building before slipping out of sight and moving to pursue.

Ethan made it back within a two hours and immediately set about grinding the herbs down and mixing them with water to make the paste. Once he was done, he rushed over to her side and grabbed a clean knife.

"Ok, I'd like to say this won't hurt a bit, but it's gonna hurt alot."

He made a quick incision in both wounds, ignoring Ana's screams of pain, and applied the paste generously to the wound. He then wrapped it in gauze, hoping that Blaine would be back soon.

Blaine was back in a few hours later, a fistful of roots clutched in his right hand. He got a pot of water boiling and boiled the roots down until they had all but vanished. He then raided their stockpile and found a syringe. He drew as much of the concoction into the syringe and injected it into the area of the infection.

"It'll be a few days before the infection is gone. We'll be here a while."

Ethan shook his head.

"No. I want you to take Kyle and Cathy out of here. We're running out of time before winter gets here. If we delay any longer, we're screwed. I'm not leaving her behind, but I can't let them freeze."

Kyle and Cathy looked shocked by his statement, but Blaine seemed unsurprised.

"You sure about this?"

The siblings immediately protested.

"No, you can't just leave us! You haven't finished teaching us!"

Ethan smiled sadly.

"I never would have been able to. I never finished my training in the first place. I lost both my parents before they could finish teaching me. Blaine knows what I know and more. He'll finish training you."

"No! It's not fair! Why can't you come and bring Ana?!"

"We can't carry her with us. She needs to be stationary and rest. This isn't open for discussion. You leave tomorrow and thats final."

Cathy stomped her feet and kept huffing and yelling about not wanting to go. Finally, Ethan put his foot down.

"I don't like this any more than you do! But there's only one way I can go with you and thats to leave Ana behind! I'm not going to just walk away. Not again."

Cathy tried to keep arguing, but Blaine just put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. She kept trying to look angry, but she couldn't hold it and burst into tears before wrapping Ethan in a tight hug.

A little shocked by this, Ethan slowly returned the hug before gently removing her from him.

"Don't worry. Once Ana's better, I'll try to catch up. Okay?"

Cathy wiped a few tears from her eyes and nodded. Everyone got settled in, except for Ethan and Blaine.

"You sure you just want to send them off with me?"

Ethan groaned and ran his hands through his hair.

"It's the best option. Still doesn't stop my innards from tying themselves in knots. I still can't just abandon Ana though."

Blaine turned back to look at her still form. Colour was starting to return to her face and her breathing steadied.

"I've been meaning to ask, why are you sticking with her? You like her? You two together or something?"

Ethan shook his head.

"No. I saved her from a small Ripper pack a couple of days after I got the siblings out of the open. She got that infection from them. Anyway, we got attacked by some wackjob with a bow and I went a bit overboard in stopping them."

"You killed them?"

"No, but I came close. Anyway, after I got them all to a new shelter, me and Ana had a huge argument about what happened and she stormed off. I never bothered to go searching until Cathy prompted me to. I guess I feel partially responsible for her condition."

"Don't beat yourself up about it. Even if you had seen it, you wouldn't have been able to do anything. You didn't even know what the problem was until I told you."

"I still could have gone for help. Either way, I can turn my back. Not this time."

Blaine turned to him.

"You keep saying that. What's got you so determined to look out for those kids and your secret crush?"

Ethan groaned.

"I told you, I don't have a crush on her. It's just... I see myself in them. Or rather, I see my past reflected in them. They all lost their parents and I guess I felt that if I could help them, maybe I'd stop feeling so broken about mine."

Blain shook his head.

"There isn't anything you could have done. I heard what happened from another survivor, and it still gives me nightmares. You actually saw it. You may not have finished your training, but you sure as hell are one of the best Runners out there."

Ethan barked out a laugh.

"I doubt that. Still, we best get some rest. You and the siblings got a long day ahead of you."

"Hey, didn't you say that the girl is related to the siblings?"

"I did. I lied. Wasn't sure if I could trust you. Remember what I said about the crazy person with a bow?"

"Eh, fine. I'll give you that. See you in the morning."

* * *

Medusa couldn't believe her luck. She had finally found the target and tracked it down to a section of buildings that had several gaps in them as well as plenty of vines. She could see him and someone else sitting near the edge, talking. She hadn't seen the second one last time, so he must be new. She had already called her team to her location and was waiting for them to show up so that they could make a move. This time, she wasn't leaving empty handed.

**Well this is getting interesting isn't it. This one took longer than expected to finish. Close to a week and a half if I remember right. Not that it would delay anything. I'll be uploading chapter twelve tomorrow as of this writing. **

**Next chapter, PUNCHING!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Yo boss, where do you want these heads?**

**Author: Oh, put them on the windo... Wait what?! HEADS?!**

**Creativity: Yeah, they came in the mail this morning. Said they came from someone named Soldier.**

**Author: Ugh, You help one wackjob with his paperwork for court and next thing you know he's sending you heads. Send them back and tell the Reds to keep an eye on the mail he sends out. Oh, and tell him that the gift was too nice. He'll go more beserk than usual if we don't.**

**Creativity: What kind of wackjobs do you know besides him?**

**Author: Lets just say that life outside the studio is never boring.**

**Creativity: And life inside is?**

**Author: Shut up. The readers are waiting.**

**Hello! pay no attention to the heads! So, like I promised, there will be punching in this chapter! Who doesn't like punching?**

**We're starting to get to the good stuff (In my opinion)**

**When I started this a while ago, I never intended to have the secret underground government research organization or the Gorgon soldiers or that. Those came with time. Lots of it, but still. I just thought I'd put some self-reflection here as well as the trajectory this story could have taken had I not dropped it for two years.**

**Time is truly a curious thing.**

**Well, enough with that! You want a new chapter! Here you are!**

The morning was here. Sun was just peaking over the edge of the grey buildings and towering trees. Ethan overlooked the scenery before him, sitting on the balls of his heels. Today was the day.

He turned to Kyle, Cathy and Blaine who were finishing getting all their supplies secured for the journey south. He took a long look at the trio before looking back at the sun.

Funny, he thought. He remembered getting up really early when he was younger and waiting for the sun to rise. He would just sit on a rock outcropping in the mountains, looking off into the distance, squinting for those first few hints of red. Eventually his parents would come and get him for breakfast and training.

Why had it stopped?

He shook his head and walked up to Kyle and Cathy.

"You two look out for eachother okay? No matter what happens. Promise?"

"Promise." They both responded before they both wrapped him and a rib cracking hug. He hugged them back before standing back up.

"You should get moving. Once I'm confident that Ana can move we'll start to follow."

They both nodded before heading towards the opening to climb down. Cathy turned around again and waved. Ethan smiled a little before waving back.

"See ya shortstack."

Once they were on the ground, they began a light jog south. Ethan watched as they slowly vanished from sight. He turned back to Ana, who was stirring in her sleep. He rolled his shoulders before climbing onto a comfortable perch to keep watch. His thoughts wandered back to the past.

Training was hard. Everyone had a tough training regimen. It had to be. He was easier on Kyle and Cathy because they hadn't been born into it like he had. Sure it was hard, but it was still easier than what he had to go through. Still, he was confident that he had given them enough training to at least help Blaine cover the rest with relative ease.

He remembered when he began real knife training with his dad. He managed to cut himself in ten minutes. It really irked him because he had spent so much time practicing with a wooden one that he thought he would be fine. His father told him that the scar that the wound would leave was a reminder that he could never trust that just because something worked one occasion didn't mean that it would work again. That scar was still on him palm, almost unfaded.

His mom taught him how to read the night sky to navigate and how to tell what season it was. His father was never a night owl. He was more like a rooster in the morning. That never bothered Ethan though. He had the sun to wake up and look for.

After a while he fell back into reality and noticed that midday was approaching. He slipped down from his perch and checked up on Ana. She was still sleeping peacefully. He did a quick check on her arm and shoulder. The black veins practically vanished overnight. He changed her bandages and walked over to his sleeping area and sat down, Reminising on his past again.

The mountains were his home for a while. He spent his earlier years there. Climbing, jumping, running. He and his parents lived in a cave on a mountainside. There was a stream nearby where they would fish. His mother was a skilled hunter and regularly brought home birds or small game. She promised him that once he had seen his fifteenth winter, she would teach him how to hunt.

He fell back into reality again when he noticed Ana stirring and starting to get up. She groaned and tried to get up, only to fall back down when her arm flared up. Ethan dropped to the ground and hurried to her side.

"Seriously, you really have an issue with running into Rippers."

She grumbled something under her breath and let him prop her up.

"Here, you haven't had any water for a while."

He handed her a full water bottle he had refilled a while ago from the rainstorm. She accepted it gratefully and drank the whole thing. Ethan didn't bother trying to take it. He knew that she would be dehydrated and needed as much fluid as she could get to help her recover.

"You doing okay?"

She nodded and took a deep breath.

"You saved me again. After I said all those things."

Ethan shook his head.

"We both were a bit high strung from that... incident. I shouldn't have let you storm off like that in the first place. I should at least have gone to look for you sooner."

She shook her head.

"No, I should be the one apologizing. Ever since we met, you've done nothing but help me. I repaid that by calling you a monster."

Ethan threw his hands up in exasperation.

"Neither one of us is going to let the other be sorry, so lets just forget about it."

She smiled a little at this.

"Sure. Say, do you have anything around to eat? I'm starving."

Ethan nodded and rehydrated some meat while handing her some wild greens he had found. She accepted them and ate slowly. He handed her the cooked meat and went to sit down on a chunk of concrete. Once she finished eating she lay back and yawned.

"I haven't thanked you yet for saving me again. I owe you two now."

Ethan waved his hand.

"Ah, don't worry about it. Also, we had to reopen the wound to fix it. You aren't back to square one and the stitches are a lot better than the ones I gave you before, both in quality and durabilty. I'd give it a day or two before you can start moving around again properly."

She looked at her arm, noticing the black mess of veins was gone.

"What was that anyway?"

"According to another Runner I met, who did your new stitches by the way, you contracted an infection called Ripper's Venom from the knife wounds. He helped me find the cure and get it into your system to save you."

She shook her head.

"Still have a bit of pain, but that's probably from the cuts and not the infection. Where is this other Runner anyway? And where are Kyle and Cathy?"

Ethan exhaled deeply.

"I sent them off with that other Runner. Winter is fast approaching and we couldn't wait any longer. You and me could probably make up some time with my powers when you're healed enough, but I needed to make sure they were headed south before it got too cold."

He turned and walked over to his preferred perch.

"Can I ask you something? It's about last night."

Ethan turned.

"Sure."

"What's this massacre I heard about?"

Ana had a feeling that she had suddenly stepped onto very thin ice that would break beneath her with one misstep. Ethan had visibly tensed up a great deal. She was worried that he would just leave or get angry.

"Where did you hear that?"

Time to spill the beans.

"Last night, I woke up for a short while before you and someone I didn't recognize, I assume that he was the Runner you mentioned, went to sleep. You were talking and I heard about a massacre."

Ethan turned away and pressed a hand to his face.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." She added hastily.

He huffed.

"No. I guess I should tell you. There was a place a few years ago that the symbiotes and Rippers never went. It was up north, in a mountain range. Anyway, once a Runner has seen their twentieth winter, they're supposed to go to the mountains for a total of one week. We meet, actually socialize so that we don't go nuts, trade information and look for a partner. If we don't find one that year, we come back the next year and try again. Wash, rinse, repeat. That mountain range also serves as a safe haven for Runners who have a child with them or who will be with them. The kid will stay there for sixteen years before they have to leave on their own."

Ana listened intently, getting a small knot of dread in her stomach.

"You said that you stay there for sixteen years from birth, but you claim to have been on your own for a few years."

"Yeah. When I was eleven there was a massive invasion of symbiotes. Except that they didn't come in from outside. They had been waiting there long before the Runners organized themselves the way they did it seems. They came from cracks in the mountains, caves so high up we could never climb high enough to reach them without suffering oxygen deprivation, cavities in the trees, almost everywhere. It was a horrifying. My dad fought off three of them with an hatchet and a knife so that me and my mother could escape. We almost made it out when the symbiotes started an avalanche. I wouldn't have made it if my mom hadn't shoved me through and gotten trapped herself on the other side of the rocks. I just remember my feet pushing me away from the mountains as fast as they could. I made it to a lake and collapsed from exhaustion. When I woke up the next morning, my feet were so swollen I couldn't walk for two days."

Ana felt horrified by his story. The symbiotes waited almost a century before deciding to attacking Ethan and his family in the one place they felt was safe. His family had been violently ripped away from him like her own had been. And at such a young age!

"I'm so sorry, I can't imagine..."

"Don't. It's over and done with. No amount of sympathy can change what happened."

She respected his wish and asked another question.

"Where do Runners go to meet now? You said that you're supposed to find a partner right?"

Ethan shook his head.

"I have no idea. My best guess is that it'll be south. All Runners are forced down there eventually to wait out winter. We can't make proper shelters without alerting symbiotes to our presence. Besides, most Runners hunt birds and the ones that provide the best food migrate south anyway. So it makes sense to follow them."

She nodded and leaned back, feeling a little sleepy. Ethan looked up and noticed that it was starting to get dark. He hadn't realized how much time had actually passed. He made a quick dinner and doused the fire before moving Ana to a more shadowy corner. After making sure she was comfortable he went to his own sleeping nook and settled down. He was about fall asleep when the symbiote began to give off a danger signal. He got up and moved Ana to a safer place, startling her awake.

"What's going..."

Ethan shushed her quickly.

"Something's wrong. Whatever happens, do not make any noise okay? Promise?"

She was still for a moment before finally nodding. Ethan turned and slipped away. He allowed the symbiote to form over him and climbed up the wall to hang upside down from the ceiling to wait and see what was triggering his danger sense.

Medusa was lying in wait a couple of buildings away from where she had seen the target go the previous night. Her team had rendevoused with her some time ago and they had activated their signal belts and radioed in that they had tracked him down and were waiting for backup to be close enough to cover all exits once they made their move.

Their comm units buzzed and a distorted voice broke the silence.

"We're close. ETA: Five minutes. Make your move."

Medusa made a hand signal and the three soldiers slipped down to ground level and made their way to the target's shelter. They began climbing and soon reached the floor that Medusa leader had seen him enter. They clamoured inside and drew their knives.

"Alright muckball, come out! We know you're here!"

"You really don't take a hint do you?"

They spun around to see a boy with black hair and green eyes glaring at them, fists clenched.

"You aren't leaving this time."

"The bruising on your face says otherwise."

Medusa got a little confused. The bruising on her face from their last encounter had faded a while ago thanks to the chemicals they had pumped into her to make her a Gorgon soldier.

Therefore she was caught off guard when he suddenly hurtled forward, his symbiote wrapping around him as he slammed his fist into her face.

"That's the bruising I was talking about."

She snarled.

"Brat!"

All of them charged the target at once, weapons raised. In response the symbiote created tendrils that ended with razor sharp blades that swung around, deflecting the knives. the symbiote punched the first soldier down, kicked the second so hard that he flew across the room into the wall, then engaged Medusa in a one on one brawl. She gritted her teeth in frustration as he kept slipping past her guard and landing quick blows. He was humiliating her!

She yelled in frustration as she threw all her body weight against the symbiote, pushing it back before dragging an arrow from her quiver and trying to stab him with it. He dodge twice before his forearm transformed into a blade and cut it in half. By now the other Gorgon soldiers had rejoined the fight, but were not making any headway. Then the cavalry arrived.

Several small airships flew in close and shone floodlights through the holes in the building onto the symbiote, catching it by surprise. It spun around, covering it's eyes in shock of the sudden brightness. Medusa took this chance.

She dragged a fresh arrow from her quiver and fired it right into it's back. It yelped in surprise and began trying to reach back and grab it, only for another arrow to sprout from it's shoulder. She fired a final one into it's leg. Finally it collapsed, unconscious.

"Bag this muckball and lets get out of here!"

Several soldiers moved and grabbed the symbiote before throwing it in a special pod that filled with a mixture of oxygen and sleep gas. The team got into the ship carrying the symbiote and strapped in for the trip home.

"I finally got you, you body snatching son of a #$%. I hope the experiments they put you through are as painful as possible."

Ana couldn't comprehend how many different feelings were roaring through her head. She was terrified by what had happened, shocked by Ethan's defeat, shocked again by how much military had come to capture him, confused to an immeasurable degree as to where they had come from. But most of all she felt alone. With her wounds, she couldn't move for at least another day and even then, what would she do? Her limited training from Ethan had helped her get by for a few days, but that wouldn't help in the long run. Going south wouldn't help since she had very limited food and water available. She had no idea where Ethan was being taken and even then, she couldn't help him. She was stuck.

Then she saw something out of the corner of her eye. something blue.

She turned and felt overwelming shock to see her symbiote sitting not to far from her, motionless. Where had it come from?!

It edged a little closer to her, seemingly unsure. Ana realized that it was probably still dealing with her outburst when she demanded it leave her. She needed to make this right. She held out her hand, palm up and laying on the ground.

It slithered forward slowly before touching her hand and wrapping around it. It snaked its way up her arm and over her shoulder. She was surprised to find that the dull pain in her shoulder vanished once it passed over. It continued to wrap around her until she was in full costume, save for her face.

"You came back."

_"Never... Left."_

She was shocked.

"You can talk?"

_"Bare..Ly. Still... Learning."_

Her shock dissapated quickly. She still had amends to make.

"I'm sorry for what I did to you. I wasn't thinking clearly and blamed you for what your species did to me. You aren't like them."

The symbiote didn't respond verbally, but she could feel that all was forgiven.

"My friend was captured. He's like us. Do you think you can find him?"

_"Yes. Left faint... traces... of mass... in.. blood. Can track."_

Ana got to her feet, exhilirated by the energy and power coursing through her. Now she didn't need to wait for the wounds to heal. She could sense that the symbiote had repaired them.

"Okay. Lets go save him."

**You all knew I wouldn't get rid of it forever! If I did, you would all rise up and consume my soul for such cruelty! Though for the future, I find that souls taste best barbequed. Say, I wonder how well Ghost Rider is at barbeque. **

**Creativity: Okay, this is just wierd, even for the internet.**

**Author: Nothing is too wierd for the internet. That's the number one rule of the internet. Followed closely by "Do not feed the trolls."**

**Creativity: I thought that was rule number one.**

**Author: Shut up. I gotta get back to the readers.**

**So yeah, the blue one is back! And it can talk! Yeah, I figured I would have to give it dialogue eventually. I just thought that having them have to deal with different forms of communication would be more fun to write. There'll be more symbiotes in future (Obviously) and now we can get to what I feel will be my favourite section to write! IT'S GONNA BE AMAZING! AHHHH!**

**Okay, I'm done. See ya in ch 17!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Well... Greetings. It has been some time since I greeted the readers with an ominous tale of...**

**Author: Oh cork it. You were never that ominous.**

**Creativity: Well maybe I could be if someone wasn't always interupting!**

**Author: No one wants to listen to your bogus horror stories.**

**Creativity: Oh, is that so? Well I'll bet you that they would actually like to listen to one! You hear me readers? Drop a message if you want to listen to my... spooooky, scaaaaaary stories!**

**Author: Dear lord help us all if this actually happens...**

**Creativity: Why must you ruin everything?**

**Author: Why must I sign your pay check?**

**Creativity: Shutting up sir! I'll get back to the wheel sir!**

**Author: Make it double time! the B.T.I is running low since you wasted a whole bunch of time trying to get that horror story together! Now, on to the readers.**

**Hey everyone! So, I decided that I want to do something special for chapter twenty. I've done a lot of thinking about it and I've decided to do one of two things. Either A: a chapter all about important events of Ethan's life in the mountains, or B: A chapter following Kyle, Cathy and Blaine on their journey south. No, this isn't up for a vote, although If I get enough feedback, I might just do the other one for a later chapter, okay? Okay.**

**NOW ONTO THE SECRET GOVERNMENT FACILITY THAT IS NOT CLICHE IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM! YAY!**

Men and women in lab coats bustled around the massive grey room exchanging tablets, calling out for information and trying to get ready for the first stage of their experiments with their new aquisition. The lead scientist, Dr. Markus was trying her best to keep a straight face but occasionally slipped up and revealed the expression of a kid in a candy store with a hundred dollars clutched in their hands.

She could not have asked for the mission to go better. She had her specimin almost completely undamaged and what damage was there would have been repaired by the symbiote by the time they placed the specimin in a holding tank. The tank was filled with a special liquid that allowed free movement, but prevented an occupant from actually going anywhere. Soon they would be able to transfer the host inside to a proper holding cell for gathering data while keeping the symbiote for her personal experiments.

After a few minutes one of the scientists approached her.

"We are ready to procede with phase one."

Dr. Markus nodded and turned to another scientist nearby.

"Drain the holding tank and prepare for sonic bombardment."

The scientist nodded and began tapping away at a keyboard. The fluid drained from the tank, leaving the symbiote standing stationary in the center of the tank.

"Begin bombardment in three... Two... One... Now."

The symbiote began to writhe and twist on the host, who began clutching their head. After a few more moments the symbiote completely disconnected from it's host, leaving them lying on the ground. The symbiote was sucked through a seperate vent into a transparent container. The container was then transfered into a large room that was grey on all sides and had a massive glass window on one side. There were several robotic appendages hanging from the ceiling, completely inactive.

"We will begin preliminary analysis in two hours. Transfer the host to holding cell 1-A"

Two soldiers walked to the tank and grabbed the boy under his arms and dragged him out and into the holding cell where they dropped him uncermoniously on the floor. Meanwhile, Dr. Markus was making sure all of the equipment was ready for analysing the symbiote was ready. So far everything checked out. She walked over to a control panel and tapped several buttons. This caused a machine with some sharp looking sissor-like blades dropped down and moved towards the symbiote, which had scrunched itself into a tiny ball in an effort to escape the blades. Dr. Markus tapped another button, which caused a small burst of electricity to shock it, causing it to unfurl in surprise. The sissors cut a piece of its mass off and deposited it in a tiny glass container. Several more arms reached down and stuck tiny needles into the mass, sucking it up into seperate chambers. Each chamber began to hum and glow a different color. After several long minutes, Dr. Markus examined the test results and was actually slightly disappointed to find the biologically, it wasn't that different any other symbiote mass she had examined in the past.

"Well, these are only preliminary tests. I imagine we'll find something that will shed light on it's strange nature."

Another scientist stepped forward.

"Doctor if I may, do you have any theories as to why this symbiote behaves the way that it does?"

"I have many. Perhaps it has adapted to feed off of symbiote mass, it's host may have wrestled control from the intruder, I could go on. Either way, we won't know for sure until we examine it further. By now, I suspect that the host has started to wake up from the ordeal of seperation. It can't be pleasent to have been forced out of that. Still, I imagine they will be greatful that we managed to pry it off him. I'll want him examined twenty four hours from now. Start preparations for the next test!"

The scientists began working away while Dr. Markus left the room. She had to report to the council about the mission.

It took some time to navigate the sprawling corridors of the base, but she eventually made it to the conference room where the council met for the day's bickering.

_All I need to do is deliver my report and leave. Like it's ever that easy. I'll probably have to waste an hour or two trying to explain what my experiments entail. Ah well. Time to face the music._

She walked into the room to find that it was unusually quiet. All eyes were on her. Markus walked to the darkened screen and started giving her report on the mission and how her experiments were progressing thusfar. She made her answers as short and simple as she could manage. It took her around forty five minutes to cover everything the council asked about. She couldn't believe her luck until she was almost out the door.

"Dr. Markus, what of the host of your test subject?"

"We have him in a holding cell so that we can evaluate the impact of being bonded to a symbiote on a living organism."

"We request that he be terminated immediately."

Dr. Markus was taken aback.

"Sir with all due respect, he is a nessesity for our research! If we destroy him now, we lose at least half, if not more of the nessesary data to complete the anti-symbiote!"

"Dr. Markus, couldn't you simply provide the symbiote with another host that we have some familiarity with?"

She groaned in frustration. She had already explained this!

"We aren't sure of the nature of their bond, by which I mean if the boy was in control or the symbiote or the other way around. Until we know that, we cannot introduce a new host. If we rush or cut corners we could create a whole new set of problems. Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

She walked out and made her way to her quarters. She needed some rest before she began further tests.

* * *

Ethan felt like a rock had dropped on his head. Multiple times. He groaned as he pushed himself up. His vision was mildly blurry. His surroundings seemed to be a mess of white and light grey. He staggered to his feet and looked around. His vision cleared up, but it honestly wasn't much of an improvement.

He was sitting in a white and grey room with padded floors, a mirror that ran the whole length of the wall, what appeared to be a metal frame bed jammed into a corner with uncomfortable looking sheets and a toilet in the opposite corner. He walked over to the bed with stiff legs and lay down. The mattress wasn't very comfortable, but it was more comfortable than rocks. He rolled his head and shoulders, trying to loosen up the joints and occupy himself. Once he felt a little more awake he stood up and stretched his arms and legs before doing a few pushups to wake up his muscles properly. After that, he went and sat down on his bed and tried to figure out what was going on. The symbiote wasn't talking to him like before and his suit wasn't forming, so that meant it had probably been forced to seperate from him.

He remembered being attacked by the crazy lady again and some friends. Then there was a blinding light, pain in his back, then black. Whatever was going on, he didn't like it. But he also realized that he was extremely tired. Strange, since he had just woken up from what he assumed was a long nap. Deciding to worry about that later, he climbed back into the bed and closed his eyes. He had a feeling he would need the rest.

* * *

Ana charged through the grasslands, feet pounding against the ground. She had been running for the better part of a few hours now, tracking down Ethan, based on her symbiote's directions. According to it, there was still a few days to go. She had a pack of food and water, but she wanted to cover as much ground as she could before nightfall. She was very glad to have the symbiote back. They had spent a lot of time 'talking' and trying to figure out what that military group wanted with Ethan. So far, the only thing she had been able to come up with was that they wanted him for the symbiote. She wondered if that made her a target as well.

She didn't dwell on it too much. First thing was to try and track down Ethan, where ever they had taken him. She was surprised that they weren't heading back to the city as that proved to be the most likely place they would have come from. Instead, they were heading west of it towards a more hilled area. She was already noticing the inclines and declines of the land around her.

After noticing the sun starting to dip low, she stopped by a lone tree and gathered some twigs to start a fire. After rehydrating the meat she roasted it on a stick, noticing that the symbiote retracted from her hands while she did so, and ate it quickly. After a drink of water to wash it down, she climbed into the tree and webbed her legs and stomach to a branch and fell asleep.

The next day was an early start. She simply had some water and a quick can of beans before breaking into a run in the direction that the symbiote had indicated. There was much more ground to cover.

* * *

Dr. Markus found herself awake earlier than she anticipated. She pulled on her labcoat and made her way to the testing chamber and ran a basic diagnostic on the symbiote like she had yesterday. She wanted to see how it reacted when presented with a host it couldn't reach. She was working on her own today, much to her pleasure. She pressed a few buttons on a control console in front of her, releasing the symbiote into a completely sealed glass box. A few more key presses caused a platform to rise up, containing a glass cage with a mouse in it. The two cages joined together and the dividing wall fell away. However, there was a sonic barrier between the mouse and the symbiote that it wouldn't be able to detect. It was only meant to act like a light electric shock, making it recoil.

Odd thing was, the symbiote didn't do anything. It just sat there, unmoving, as if it didn't care!

Dr. Markus was very confused. Did the symbiote sense the barrier and know that it couldn't actually reach the mouse? She decided to take a risk and lowered the sonic barrier. It still didn't move! There was a potential host sitting right in front of it and it wasn't making any move to bond with it! She knew that symbiotes would just as easily bond with any animal as humans. This didn't make any sense!

Perhaps she should consult the boy. Surely he could provide an answer.

She radioed ahead to move the boy to a special room they designed for questioning people face to face without being in the same room. It took her a few minutes to reach the room, but she eventually made it there. She had traded her tablet for a clipboard and pen. After stepping into the room, she could see the boy pacing on the other side of the glass. He didn't seem to be in a good mood.

_All things considered, I would be too if I woke up in a strange place like this with no warning. I hope this doesn't affect his cooperation._

She settled into a chair and pressed a button on the wall next to her.

"Hello, pleased to meet you. My name is Dr. Emily Markus. I wish to ask you a few questions regarding your time spent bonded to the symbiote we removed from you. We understand if you don't wish to talk about such an experience but it would be invaluable to our research."

She heard a short bark of laughter from the boy before he dropped into the chair opposite to her and propped his feet up.

"Somehow I knew this was about the symbiote. So, what do you want to know? Weaknesses, how to infiltrate nests, whatever. Ask away."

Dr. Markus smiled. Perhaps he would be cooperative after all.

"I wish to know why the symbiote was killing it's own kind. More specifically, who was in control. Was it you or the symbiote."

"It wasn't the symbiote."

"Ah, so you were in control. Good. Now can you tell me how you wrestled control of your body back from it?"

"It wasn't me either."

"I'm sorry Mr..."

"Ethan. Just Ethan."

"Ethan. What you have just said contradicts your previous answer. How can you have been in control of the symbiote, but not have been in control of the symbiote?"

Ethan shook his head.

"For someone who claims to be a doctor, you aren't doing a good job of proving it. I just told you that no one was 'in control'. It's kinda in the name. Symbiote. As in, symbiotic relationship?"

Dr. Markus just shook her head.

"I'm afraid you must be mistaken, Ethan. Every symbiote ever observed takes control of a host. I can believe that a host, if strong enough, can take control of their body and use the abilities a symbiote grants for themselves, but a symbiote simply providing a host with access to it's powers without any semblance of control is just impossible."

Ethan rolled his eyes.

"Say what you want doc. I was the one that thing was attached to, not you. Believe me, it could do that if it wanted to. It just chooses not to. Though, I can't say that it would treat a host the same in here. I imagine if it got another host, it would use them to smash its way out before ditching them. It doesn't like controlling others."

Dr. Markus frowned.

"Despite your obvious lack of knowledge on the matter, I will ignore that. Besides, we've already tried to provide it with a mouse as it's host and it wouldn't take it."

Ethan looked mildly surprised for a second before smirking a little.

"Oh. Well it's a loyal little devil is it? I don't know what to tell you doc. My best guess is that it won't take any host other than a human now, or that it simply doesn't like you. I wonder how you're going to solve that problem. Maybe try giving it a lizard? I mean, an apple is the exact same as an orange right?"

She felt a little insulted by his last comment. She did write down the possibilty that it would only take a human host now however. She rose to leave.

"I hope that you will be more cooperative in the future, Ethan. We are trying to save the human race after all."

Ethan barked in laughter again.

"Sure you are doc. That's why the surviving population from your city is starving to death in the crumbling ruins of an old building isn't it?"

Dr. Markus did her best to ignore his parting shot, but it still stuck with her. She left promptly, trying to determine whether or not he was lying or insane. She assumed it was the latter. Still, he had valuable information and she would get it out of him, one way or another. She hoped that it would be the path of least resistance.

"A cooperative, symbiotic bond with a symbiote? Perposterous."

**Well, Ethan is certainly not in a good mood now is he? Just wait a chapter or two before he gets bloody livid. Also, Dr. Markus has begun her experiments. Oh, this could end badly for her. Then again, maybe not. Who knows? Oh thats right! I DO! YAY ME!**

**Okay, enough gloating. See you in the future!**


	18. Chapter 18

**We are getting closer. Ever so slightly closer to the twentieth chapter. I can practically smell it. Wait, what is that smell? THAT IS DEFINITELY NOT THE SMELL OF CHAPTER TWENTY!**

**Creativity: BOSS! WE HAVE A SITUATION!**

**Author: Please don't tell me what I think happened did happen...**

**Creativity: IF YOU MEAN THAT THE FILTER FROM THE STUDIO NEXT DOOR JUST BLEW, YES! THAT DID JUST HAPPEN!**

**Author: Why oh why did they have to be working with just about every foul smelling substance on the planet today?! WHY?! Wait! I bet there's a button for this!**

**(starts examining buttons) Aha! This will work for now! (Pushes button, causing gas mask to pop out of thin air)**

**Ah... that's better. Sorry about that. So as I was saying, We are approaching the twentieth chapter and I am really stoked! I'm kinda leaning towards the mountains special, but I have also started considering a third option. Doing one extra long chapter! I have to say, I see myself doing this option as the more likely one. Just sayin.**

**Anyway, you enjoy the chapter while I try to clear up the fiasco happening here.**

**Creativity: MY EYES!**

Ethan was doing push ups. Lots of them. He was beyond bored in this box they were keeping him in. It was made worse by the fact that he suspected that they were experimenting on his symbiote. It made him rather anxious. He had actually grown fond of the symbiote, even if he still had his doubts every now and again. Still, nothing he could do about it. Not now anyway. His thoughts wandered back to Ana. He just hoped she was okay. He imagined that she was probably headed south if she was still alive. Hopefully.

He shook his head of those thoughts. He couldn't start doing that. It would just be his parents all over again.

He decided that his arms had suffered enough and switched to sit ups. He spent his days excercising between the meals they brought him. They were always the same thing. bland bread, bland skinned and mashed roots and bland meat. At least he was full. Finally he stopped. He was tired and bored with excercise. He lay down flat on the floor and let himself zone out for a while.

He wondered how the siblings were doing with Blaine. They were probably a quarter of the way there by now. He had been down here for a few days by his estimate. If he was in fact 'down'. He didn't exactly have anyone to ask. He hadn't recieved any visits for Dr. Markus since their first meeting. He hadn't expected her to just immediately believe that he and the symbiote had a cooperative bond, but she had been much more resistant than he had expected. Almost as if she was determined to prove him wrong.

He slipped back into reality when he heard a buzzing noise. The last time he heard that was before the soldiers had come in to 'escort' him to the room that Dr. Markus had decided to meet him in. Looks like he we was going to 'have his brain picked' again. If it was indeed Dr. Markus again, he intended to be as honest and infuriating as he possibly could. He had to eleviate his boredom somehow.

Dr. Markus had started this project as excited as she could possibly be. Now however, after several days of very minimal success she was starting to become increasingly frustrated. She had been trying several different animals, exposing it to various tests, just about everything she could do without causing serious harm to the symbiote in an effort to learn just how it ticked. It was as if it was trying to make her life difficult. It's stubborn refusal to take a host, even when offered on a proverbial gilded platter, was the most baffling and frustrating. She had tried many small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, even fish! Nothing was working!

Thus far, she had only succeeded in figuring out that it did in fact require nutrients to function. She had discovered that by accident when she noticed that the vitals were changing regularly on a day to day basis. She exposed the symbiote to a vitamin and protein gel which, much to her relief, restored the vital signs to normal. That was a small victory for her. Still, it didn't solve the problem of the council being on her back for results. She was getting desperate. Especially since she was facing increasing pressure to put Ethan down for good. She stubbornly repeated that they had to gather data from him before they could even think about getting rid of him once and for all.

She groaned and massaged her temples. She had put this off long enough. Since she wasn't getting anywhere with the symbiote, she would have to turn to the second half of her test subject. She had already devised some tests for him, as well as thought up a few more questions. Hopefully he would be more cooperative. Somehow she doubted it.

She radioed ahead to have him moved to one of the doctor's offices they had in the R&amp;D department as well as to secure him to the table. She arrived a few minutes after the guards left with a few assistants.

"I'm going to collect three vials of blood. Check his vitals for anything out of the ordinary. Then I want you to do a brain scan."

The assistants started prepping the equipment while she drew the blood samples. She carried them out of the lab and connected the vials to three seperate machines and tapped a few buttons on her tablet. The machines started humming. One of them began spinning while another one ran a ring with several inward pointing lasers down the length of the vial. After a few minutes she had the first set of data. She began examining it and was almost giddy. This was incredible!

The second machine was soon done and revealed nothing out of the ordinary. Finally, the third machine brought up some basic information about the healthiness of Ethan's body. Ignoring some mild malnutrition, he was perfectly fine.

She studied the reports a little longer before returning to check on the symbiote. It was just as she had left it. Completely unmoving and scrunched up in the center of it's tube. It's apathetic behaviour was one she much wanted to solve. Unfortunately, she had only one course of action left that she could think of. Ethan had mentioned the possibility that it wouldn't take any other host in passing, but there was something else that had been hanging on to the edge of her brain. He called it "a loyal little devil,"

Ethan was hinting that it wouldn't take any host other than him now. As much as she wanted to declare the idea perposterous, it was becoming much more a real possibilty. She did not want to expose it to a human under any circumstances as it could go on a rampage and slaughter it's way to freedom. It may have ignored humans before but she suspected that it would hold a grudge and follow through on it if she gave it the opportunity.

Her thoughts were interupted when she was radioed in by her assistants to look over the information they had gathered.

She pulled up the file on her tablet and was mildly disappointed by what the data from the brain scan showed. Well, maybe disappointed isn't the right word. Perhaps concerned was a better one.

She had one last test for Ethan. For now at least. She called a few fellow doctors and called them down. She also had Ethan transferred to the 'Interview room'. Hopefully this would help her with her dealings with him in the future.

Ethan grumbled in his mind as he was roughly pushed into the same room he had been in before when Dr. Markus came to talk to him. He started pacing again. It was more of a nervous habit than anything else. until a few days ago, he was constantly occupied by training the siblings, searching for caches, making food or making sure Ana wasn't getting herself killed. Now that he had nothing to do, he was constantly wound up. Always doing something until he was too tired to do anything and drift off into his thoughts while his body rested. Then he would do it again. Over and over.

He saw the door on the other side of the glass open and a man stepped inside. He was dressed in shiny black clothes and had a clip board and pen. He sat down in the chair, completely relaxed.

"Hello Ethan. My name is Dr. Mackenzie. I've come here to ask you a few questions."

Ethan shrugged and dropped into the chair lazily.

"You too huh? What, did Dr. Markus thing I was being deliberately stupid? She think I'm going to tell you anything different?"

Dr. Mackenzie shook his head.

"No no, you misunderstand. I've come to talk about you. We would like to know a little more about your background from before you were bonded to the symbiote."

Ethan seemed mildly surprised but shrugged.

"Fine. Let's hear it then."

The questioning went on for some time. After a while, Dr. Mackenzie left and another person entered. This time it was a woman introducing herself as Dr. Cho. She asked questions that fell into the same category. About his past, living outside the city, etc. This cycle repeated a couple more times with different doctors. Ethan was just getting confused. What was with all the questions about life before the symbiote? What were they looking for?

Ana was close. At least according to her symbiote, she was close. She had been tracking Ethan for approaching a week now. She had eaten and drank sparingly but was still running low on supplies. She look up to see she had a couple more hours before she should bunk down for the night. She opened the pack she had brought with her and removed a strip of dry meat and one almost empty water bottle. She was almost completely out of water now. She had one bottle left.

Huffing to herself, she ate the dry, salty meat straight and washed it down with the water before scanning the horizon for anything of note. So far she was clear. She ran a little while longer before she heard a loud _whump whump whump _noise coming from a distance. She realized that it was some sort of heli-vehicle and dropped down into the tall grass and had the symbiote form her normal clothes for better camoflauge. She saw it going overhead and got a genius idea.

She positioned herself where she had an open sightline to the sky and easy cover to avoided being spotted and settled in to wait.

It was a couple of hours before she heard the familiar sound of a transport flying overhead. This one sounded much bigger. She waited until it was about to pass her before firing a web up onto the transport's underbelly and swinging up and around to the top. She flattened herself against the roof and watched as the world beneath her rushed past.

She was on the roof of the transport for a couple hours before she felt it beginning to descend. She waited until it was low enough before jumping to the ground. The ground was extremely rocky and had a lot of nooks and crannies she could slip into so as to avoid detection. She looked and saw that the ground had opened up into a massive, gaping hole, straight down. She couldn't see how deep it was from her current perspective. She could see, however, that there was a lot of hangers along the walls of the pit. This was going to be difficult. On the plus side, she knew where Ethan was now.

Dr. Markus looked over the reports that her aquaintances had delivered to her a few hours ago. To say she was concerned was an understatement.

She had called those doctors to try and determine if there was any physcological damage to Ethan that might render him insane or delusional. The reports however, stated that while he did indeed have childhood trauma, he wasn't suffering from and form of PTSD or any significant damage of any kind for that matter. Sure there were a few things but nothing that would make him certifiably crazy.

To Dr. Markus, this was more concerning that if he was mad. It meant that he was telling the truth. His mind, while perhaps a bit nicked or dented, was completely rational.

"Is it possible?"

She shook her head. Of course it wasn't. Symbiotes don't give. They take. Thats all. And she was going to stop it once and for all.

She tapped a few times on her ever present tablet, bringing up a log of all return flights. She felt a brief twitch of happiness when she saw that the transport had returned. She immediately radioed ahead.

"Bring them down to the lab and get them ready. We need this to work if we are to complete the anti-symbiote."

Dr. Markus stood up and turned to leave when she got a message on her tablet. She opened it and frowned a little.

She departed swiftly and walked down to the main lab to be greeted by Medusa leader, who was, apparently, not in a good mood.

"What the hell are you thinking?"

"I beg your pardon, soldier?"

"Why is that murderer still alive?"

"Because we may still yet need him."

"Yeah. In a grave."

"This isn't open for discussion."

"The hell it is! I read your report on him claiming to be in control of that damn alien! I watched him kill a gorgon soldier! He broke his glider and threw him off a building! And yet he's just sitting in the basement, being fed three meals a day!"

Dr. Markus slammed her hand onto the control console in front of her.

"I don't care about any personal vendetta you have. You did your job. Now let me do mine or I swear, you will wish he tossed you off that building."

Medusa leader snarled and stalked away. Dr. Markus rubbed her temples.

"Why do I get the feeling that this is just the beginning?"

One of her assistants tapped her on the shoulder.

"Doctor, we've prepped all the test subjects like you asked."

"Good. Put them in the holding pen and bring down a pack of protein pellets for each of them. We'll commence the experiment in thirty six hours."

**Ooooh, test subjects! This can't be good! So, I hope you all are still enjoying the story! I'm enjoying writing it.**

**Creativity: I'm enjoying that minty freshness. We should use that button more often.**

**Author: Agreed. **

**See you in chapter 19!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Hmmmm... What's next? This, that, something else? I JUST CAN'T DECIDE!**

**Creativity: Uh, boss? Why are you yelling about choosing a pastry?**

**Author: Because I can only have one!**

**Creativity: You didn't let me finish. The audience is watching.**

**Author: What? Oh sorry about that.**

**So, we are approaching the big two zero! One away. JUST ONE! Anyway, I've decided to just do one extra long chapter for chapter twenty. However, if I see enough support, I'll write a short spinoff story of oneshots for those other topics I was flapping my gums about. **

**All right! Here we go! Chapter 19!**

Dr. Markus kept groaning inwardly as she tried to explain why her experiments had been slowing down to the council. She had explained numerous times and in many ways that the symbiote was refusing to behave like a symbiote should, that Ethan had provided them with two potential reasons and that the data she had collected pointed that she needed to take a riskier approach.

She was going to offer a human host to the symbiote instead.

She had sent out a transport to collect Runners as they were the closest thing to the symbiote's host without it actually being the symbiote's host. She was confident that she could recreate the conditions Ethan had offered as a host. She just needed to make sure that they could seperate the symbiote from the host once they had the data the needed.

She had set up a room with a sonic emitter built into one of the walls which could force the symbiote off of a host without damaging it. All the data and simulations she had run pointed to an answer of yes, but she was still aprehensive.

She finally managed to escape the council's meeting room and made her way to the lab. She had spent the previous day reviewing all of the candidates they had aquired and outfitting them with special instruments connected to their arms to detect a successful bond. Now was the time to introduce them to the test subject.

She made it down to the lab and was unpleasantly surprised to find Medusa leader waiting in the lab as well.

"What exactly are you doing here?"

"I'm here to watch. Council's orders."

"I just came from the council and they mentioned no such thing."

"It was last minute. They want me to actually see if you're trying to make progress or if you're just having fun with a new toy."

Dr. Markus resisted the urge explode with outrage and grudgingly nodded before tapping a few times on her tablet. Indeed, there was a last minute message that Medusa leader would be obsreving her experiments for the remainder of the week. She tapped a few more times, harder than she probably needed to, bringing up a screen with several lines of code and a box with the words "Awaiting signal" written inside.

"Bring in subject 1A"

A door hissed open and a young man was pushed through by two soldiers. The door snapped shut and the sealed box containing the symbiote rose out of the floor.

"If you can hear me, nod once."

The young man nodded, fear evident in his eyes.

"We are trying to understand the bonding process of symbiotes as part of a plan to destroy them once and for all. To do this, we to study the bonding process in detail. Do not fear. We can force it off of you when we have what we need."

She pressed another button, causing one side of the box to slide open, allowing the symbiote to crawl out. But it didn't. It continued to just sit there. Dr. Markus felt a flare of frustration.

"Try approaching it."

The man shook his head vigorously, only for him to clutch his arm in pain. If one looked carefully, they could see something something rectangular embedded in his arm. It also had the "Awaiting signal" screen.

"Approach it."

The young man approached it timidly. The symbiote didn't even so much as ripple. It just sat there like a puddle of mud!

"Try touching it."

Understanding that he would be shocked if he disobeyed again, he reached a hand into the box and actually touched it. Or rather he tried to, but the symbiote just moved it's mass away from him, like magnetic liquid moving away from a magnet of the same charge. Dr. Markus grumbled angrily and called for another test subject. They more or less repeated the process, only to receive the same results. Another subject, same result!

Unbeknownst to Dr. Markus, this was also make Medusa leader angry as well, albeit for nuanced reasons.

She was feeling that the symbiote was saying that they weren't good enough to be it's host, like they were unworthy of being controlled by it!

Eventually they ran out of test subjects and no one had even been considered by the symbiote! Dr. Markus slammed her fist down on the console, cursing under her breath. They had accomplished nothing.

Then she heard a door opening and slamming shut. She looked to see Medusa leader storming towards the containment room. She forced the guards to let her in and marched up to the box before reaching forward and grabbing the symbiote before it could shy away.

"Go on! What are you waiting for?!"

She yanked the symbiote out of the box and grabbed it with her other hand.

"What, are we not good enough? Do we not live up to your standards?!"

Suddenly, the symbiote sprang to life. It wrapped around her arms and shot four tendrils onto the back wall before dragging itself and, by extention, Medusa leader to the wall. Then two tendrils snapped onto her forehead and she heard one word roar through her mind.

_"MONSTER!"_

She fell limp and the symbiote detached itself from the wall and slithered back to the box and climbed inside before going back to it's apathetic state one more.

Dr. Markus was still in shock from these events. This was the first time she actually saw the symbiote make an actual move, aside from reacting to sonic bombardment. It clearly held special hostility towards Medusa leader when she acted so aggressively to it.

However, she did learn something from this. A symbiote without a host is just as dangerous as one without. It could have easily killed Medusa leader, should it have chose to.

All this came back to a conclusion to her experiment. The symbiote was outright refusing to bond with anything other than Ethan. This presented her with a problem. If she wanted to make any progress with her experiments, she would have to allow Ethan to bond with the symbiote again. This came with great risk, however. Should she allow it to bond with him, it could fight it's way out of the facility and she would lose her greatest chance to create the anti-symbiote. On the other hand, she would never make significant progress in meaningful time if she didn't allow him to bond with it.

She looked to see Medusa leader being almost carried back to the main room. Dr. Markus marched over to her and started chewing her out.

"What the hell were you thinking?! You put this entire experiment, not to mention the lives of everyone in this facility at risk! Make no mistake, there will be consequences for this!"

Medusa leader didn't even react. She just mumbled a little under her breath.

"It called me a monster..."

Dr. Markus froze.

"Wait, what? It called you something? It spoke to you?!"

"It called me a monster..."

Dr. Markus couldn't believe it. For a few precious moments, there had been an actual bond between Medusa leader and the symbiote. And she had no data from it! She violently cursed and stormed out. She made her way back to her quarters and continued to swear angrily until she had spent all of her frustration. She took a deep breath and started to go over her options again, only to recieve a summons from the council.

"Oh great. This day just keeps getting better."

She got up and made sure she was presentable before making her way to the council room for the second time that day. She entered swiftly and waited for them to begin the usual questions. Strangely, that wasn't the case.

"We heard there was a complication with the experiment today."

Dr. Markus merely nodded, trying to avoid having give a long winded lecture. She wasn't that lucky.

"Would you care to elaborate?"

She gritted her teeth and started explaining what happened.

"We tried twenty human test subjects and the symbiote refused to bond with any of them. After that, Medusa leader broke into the chamber we were testing in and began to attempt to force the symbiote to bond with her. She ended up provoking it into attacking her before returning to the cage we keep it in."

"Anything else?"

"Medusa leader claims that it called her a monster."

Some of the council turned and looked at eachother. They seemed to be either skeptical, unsure, or concerned.

"We will deal with Medusa leader ourselves. For now, we want to see an actual anti-symbiote produced."

Dr. Markus almost choked on her own spit.

"We can't just rush into that! We have no idea what the results will be with our current data! If we cut corners we could create an even greater problem than we already have!"

The council looked unfazed.

"We want to see a prototype anti-symbiote in the next forty eight hours or less. If you fail to meet that deadline, your position will be given to someone else and you will be placed on probation. Are we clear."

Dr. Markus gulped.

"Crystal, sir."

She left the room as fast as she could without running and made he back down to the lab. She pulled up the data on the sample of symbiote mass when they first seperated it from Ethan and began pulling up several new screens. She tapped on it a few more times and brought up the genetic specs on the symbiote. She uploaded the data to a massive machine and began typing on a keyboard connected to it. Once she was done, the data looked similar, but with a few minor changes.

She then navigated her way to another large machine in the corner of the room. It was cylindericle with a glass dome over the top. She pressed a button, causing the dome to retract. A thick white mist bellowed out, revealing a small tube containing the sample of symbiote tissue. She removed the tube and snapped it into the machine and pressed the button.

A progress bar popped up on the machine's screen. She waited about forty five minutes until it was completed. She removed the sample and tapped a few times on the machine. She then placed the sample in another machine. This one had a similar tube attached to it, but it was empty.

Her assistants were all busy with their own tasks while she prepped the sample. Some of them were running various diagnostics, some were activating various pieces of machinery and some were just waiting for her word.

Once she was ready, Dr. Markus moved to the center of the room.

"This is well ahead of schedule, but it is unavoidable. Today, we will create a man-made symbiote to use as a weapon against the invaders of our home!"

She turned to empty vial and silently prayed that nothing went wrong.

"Begin."

The machine began humming and a small needle was inserted into the tube, extracting a fragment of the sample. It was sucked through to a large, transparent chamber where several different gels were injected into the fragment. Then the chamber began to spin, causing the fragment to begin to change. After a few seconds, the chamber began spinning in the opposite direction. Two speakers emerged from the walls outside the chamber and began to bombard it with soundwaves. After several moments, the fragment was drained into the empty vial. Now it was black and red in colour. It began to shift and warp in the case.

Dr. Markus gingerly removed the tube and held it out in front of her.

"Success!"

Her tenative celebration didn't last long, however. A guard ran in with disturbing news.

"Medusa leader has broken into the holding cell!:

Dr. Markus's blood froze. There's only one reason she would go down there.

Medusa leader stalked down to the holding cells. She had finally had it. She was going to get answers once and for all. She marched to the prisoner's cell and demanded that the guards let her in. That didn't go so well, so she just punched their lights out and opened the door herself. This was it. Once she had what she wanted, she was going to avenge Viper leader.

Ethan jolted awake when the door to his cell was thrown open. He suddenly felt a deep sense of dread in the pit of his stomach. It was the maniac that had been chasing him around the city before he was captured.

"I finally got you. You've got nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run. No symbiote to back you up."

Ethan sprang to his feet and took on a fighting stance, but the maniac just charged and slammed her shoulder into his chest, launching him backwards into the wall. He got up and coughed a few times before throwing a punch to her face. She simply stepped aside and slammed her own fist into his face. Ethan collapsed again. She was definitely stronger than any human would be normally. She reached down and grabbed the back of his shirt before hauling him to his feet and slamming her knee into his gut.

"Why did you kill him?"

Ethan spat out a globule of blood and slammed his elbow into her stomach. She grunted and loosened her grip, allowing him to jump up and kick her in the face. She rubbed her jaw once before snarling and punching him in the gut before slamming him into the wall and throwing a few more punches.

"You hear me? Why did you kill him?!"

"He tried to murder two innocent children. I never intended to kill him in the first place."

Medusa snarled and punched him again.

"So your little slimy pal did it?"

Ethan shook his head woozily.

"No. That was my actions and mine alone. And I have to deal with that."

She snarled again and kicked him.

"I ought to crush your skull here. Good riddance. But I don't think thats enough. Maybe I should finish what Viper started. I could do it. Go out and hunt down those two. Besides, they've probably got your muckball friends crawling all over them anyway. I'd be doing them a favour."

At that precise moment, the second the words left her lips, something within Ethan snapped. He slammed his forehead into her nose and kicked her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her. He then kicked her down and began to relentlessly rain blows as fast and as hard as he could. His vision was red. No one touched them! No one!

Then it cleared. He stopped, fist raised for another blow. He stopped and slowly backed away, his mind processing what he was doing. He had almost beaten another human being to death.

He slumped against a wall, his gaze was that of one in shock. He looked at his hand. The bones were obviously in a bad way.

He came to a realization in this moment. after the first time he fought that woman and needed to be stopped, he wondered if that was the symbiote making him do that. Now it was abundantly clear that it wasn't the symbiote. It was him. He had a monster inside his head. One that had probably been there since his parents were taken from him. One that emerged when people he cared about were in danger.

And he could not blame it on anyone but himself.

**Well this was a bit of a downer wasn't it. I've kinda been building to this for a while. Now that I'm actually here though, I feel lost. I guess the next step is him learning to cope with the monster in his head. Still, kinda wonder how best to go about it.**

**Oh well! Next chapter is chapter twenty! Extra long! Super lovely! Hope you all enjoyed! See you in a week! Or two. Depends on how long this takes to write.**

**I'll try to keep it at a week! Buh bye!**


	20. Chapter 20

**... **

**SOUND THE FANFARE! IGNITE THE FIREWORKS! CELEBRATE YOU BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, CELEBRATE! WE MADE IT!**

**Seriously guys, we made it to twenty chapters! TWENTY! This is a milestone! Now, I don't pretend to say that we'll make it to another twenty. I have no idea how many more chapters I can get out of this story, though at the moment I would put it at around 30+.**

**Creativity: We have other stuff we'd like to work on more prominantly!**

**Author: Indeed! I've been working on small side projects that will take precedence once this story is over, but don't fret! You can look back fondly on this story and praise me for my work!**

**Okay, that's going to far. I'm not some jerk that loves himself too much (All the time).**

**So, here's my special, extra long chapter in celebration of reaching twenty! Enjoy!**

* * *

Dr. Markus stood in the medical bay, looking at the prone form of Medusa leader. It had been three days since she broke into Ethan's cell and he had beaten her to a pulp. She wasn't too surprised by the fact that Medusa had survived the encounter. In fact, she was shocked she hadn't killed Ethan within a few short moments. Still, if she had been a normal human and not a chemically enhanced Gorgon soldier, she would have died much earlier. That still begged one question though. How on earth was Ethan able to not only hold his own, but actually come out victorious in the resulting brawl?

He hadn't come out unscathed, that much was obvious. He had many bruises, a couple of cracked ribs, a black eye and he struggled to take deep breaths. Still, he had gotten off rather well in comparison to Medusa, who's face was very bruised and puffy, her nose was broken, both eyes were black and were almost swollen shut. She even had a couple of cracks on her lower jaw!

By all accounts, Ethan shouldn't have been able to do this. If the symbiote had been bonded to him, this would all be much more plausible, but he didn't. Not enough anyway.

When she examined his blood, she did discover that there were trace amounts of symbiote mass attached to a few of his red blood cells, but that still wasn't nearly enough to provide him with the strength and reflexes needed to do this sort of damage.

She wanted to run more tests once he was fully healed, but she was much more aprehensive about removing him from the cell, now that he'd made it apparent that he was much more dangerous than they had originally thought. Perhaps the council was right about wanting him executed.

No, not yet. She still had to determine just how he had been able to beat Medusa. It could give her some insight into side effects of bonding to a symbiote. That could be revolutionary! If they could introduce a small amount of symbiote mass that was completely disconnected from the mind of the original creature into the bloodstream and it bonded with the blood cells, it could render the whole Gorgon program completely moot!

Still, she had a more immediate project she needed to complete before she could move on to the next. Funnily enough, Medusa's condition might just have provided her with a unique opportunity. She needed to go through the usual nonsense first though. If she wanted to perform this test, she needed the council's approval as well as Medusa's. The chemicals used to transform her into a Gorgon soldier had given her an accelerated healing factor that was repairing the damage much faster than a human's. Her jaw had already completely healed and the black eyes were fading nicely. Dr. Markus suspected that the anesthetic would wear off in a couple hours. That gave her just enough time to go to the council and put her idea forward.

She had already presented her report on successfully creating an artificial symbiote and she had done some genetic tinkering so as to make it susceptible to human control, theoretically. She could only go off of what she managed to pull from Ethan's bloodwork. The council was indeed pleased and had requested that she create more, but gave her a much wider timeframe to work with.

She had already worked the data for two more, making them all slightly different so as to have as many 'prototypes' to test and determine which formula worked the best. She had yet to actually make them, but she imagined it would be soon. First though, she had to visit the council.

She walked to the council room and began her presentation of her findings on her two latest formulae as well as her idea for a test. The council had been made very aware of Medusa's condition and was more eager than ever to simply pop a bullet in Ethan's head and forget he even existed, but they refrained as they had been interested by the idea of a brand new super soldier program and the fact that Ethan would be key in creating it outweighed their desire to just get rid of him.

She wrapped up quickly and waited for the council's response.

"We approve of this test you put forward and we would like to personally observe it. We await Medusa leader's response."

Dr. Markus nodded and thanked them as she left, making her way back down to the medical wing. She had been correct in her assessment. Medusa was indeed awake. Dr. Markus immediately walked to her bedside and began explaining her latest idea to her. Medusa leader listened with rapt attention. This was a very tempting offer. Especially with the sorry state she was in right now.

"Okay doc, you've convinced me. Where do I sign?"

Dr. Markus held out her tablet and motioned to a dotted line. After collecting the signature, Dr. Markus made her way back to the testing chamber they used to try and get the symbiote they had pulled from Ethan to bond with others. She and the other scientists with her started to prep the machinery and the chamber for the first big test of their artificial symbiote. The test would be the next day and they needed to be ready. Especially if the council was going to personally observe this experiment. They needed to be ready and they had to triple check everything to ensure it all went smoothly. They could not afford for anything to go wrong.

* * *

The few guards that peaked through the window at Ethan from time to time usually assumed that his lack of movement was from the injuries he had sustained from his fight with Medusa, but that was not the case. Sure he had a few bruises and his eye hurt like hell, but that wasn't why he wasn't moving. He'd sustained worse injuries in the past and pushed through it. In reality, he was still battling with the demons in his own head. He was wrestling with the monster that emerged when anyone he was attached to was under some sort of percieved threat. Any time he thought of that maniac hunting down and killing Kyle and Cathy, his heart started racing and his hands clenched into fists so tight that he actually bled once or twice.

He kept having massive arguments with himself that this was all a result of the loss of his parents, coupled with the fact that he had lived in a very harsh enviroment for a very long time and that anyone could end up like him in those circumstances. That still didn't change that he nearly killed someone with his bare hands. He still was struggling with killing that one man when he was outright trying to murder two children, but there wasn't any immediate threat to Kyle and Cathy when that maniac attacked him. No, that was all him and he wasn't sure if he could restrain it. He couldn't ask his symbiote to do it for him since it wasn't here.

Either way, he suspected it would come out again in the near future. That maniac was still well enough to come back to finish the job properly and she wouldn't underestimate him a second time.

His thoughts were interupted when the doors opened and two heavily arms guards walked into the room. They motioned for him to get up and move. It was probably time to go to that stupid room with the chair and have another chat with some sort of doctor. He was phenominally sick of them. Especially after the last parade of them. He suspected it would have something to do with the incident three days ago. He rolled his shoulders and walked out the door.

Indeed, he was escorted to the stupid room with that stupid chair. They pushed him inside and locked the door. He rolled his eyes and went over to the wall to wait for whatever pretentious, suit wearing doctor walked through the door this time.

Today it was pretentious, suit wearing doctor number one, Dr. Markus. She appeared to be much more wary, judging by her posture as she sat down. Wonder why that was.

"I suspect you know why I'm here, so I'll skip the pleasentries. You didn't need to go that far when Medusa attacked you, so why lash out like that?"

Ethan snorted and just rolled his eyes.

"Maybe isolation is starting to get to me."

Dr. Markus frowned deeply and raised her voice a little.

"I've had enough of your behaviour! I understand that perhaps this isn't the most ideal set of circumstances for you, but you've gone out of your way to make my life and lives of everyone here miserable! We pried that thing off your skin I have kept finding excuses to keep the council from simply ending you, so quit being difficult to spite us! Explain yourself, now!"

Ethan snarled and slammed his fist against the glass.

"I was doing perfectly fine until you sent that lunatic brought me here and you locked me up! You talk about saving humanity, but you can't even be bothered to care for the ones that need it and I'm not talking about me! I stepped up and did what you people should have done in the first place instead cowering away in whatever hole this is! Oh, and might I add that the maniac that wanted to kill me last night also threatened two kids who haven't even reached double digits yet? So yeah, I think I'll keep being difficult if it's all the same to you! I don't owe you anything, so don't even pretend like I have some sort of debt to pay!"

Dr. Markus glared at him while he glared back defiantly. Neither was willing to back down. Eventually, the doctor just swept out of the room. Ethan didn't feel like he had 'won' anything, but it sure felt good to vent like that. He did suspect that there would be some sort of consequence now. Probably withholding food. That wouldn't bother him. He had eaten very sparce meals all his life. Hell, they were spoiling him with the meals they gave him now.

* * *

Dr. Markus stormed back to her quarters, boiling with rage towards Ethan. By this point, she was ready to let the council have their way and just execute him. One less headache for her to deal with. She slammed the door and grumbled in frustration for a while before taking a deep breath and regaining her composure. It wouldn't do for her to be throwing fits of rage during the test tomorrow. She needed to ensure that everything was ready.

She marched back to the lab at a brisk pace and began double and triple checking practically everything and found at least one thing wrong on everything to do with presentation. She had the corrections made and went back to her quarters to wait till the next morning for the big test.

* * *

Ana had remained hidden under a rocky outcropping throughout most of the day, much like the previous three days. She was busy memorizing times when the hanger would open and when ships would come and go. She had been formulating a plan to get inside for some time, but she still had no real idea what she was getting into. She trusted that her symbiote could lead her to Ethan, or at least Ethan's symbiote, but she still didn't know what sort of opposition she would face. She didn't like her chances of fighting her way through and she didn't know enough to sneak through. Right now, her only option was to get inside and improvise.

She had spent much time planning, as well as modifying her shelter. She had used her strength to move and break away the ground underneath the overhanging rock to widen and deepen the area underneath. She also had gathered some meager food from the area. There were a few wild birds she managed to kill with spikes and roast over the smoldering embers of a fire. It still tasted unpleasent, but it kept her sustained while she prepared to infiltrate the base.

The symbiote hadn't been of as much help as Ana would have liked, but it was still of help. It watched her back for her and offered a few ideas every now and again. As it turned out, the symbiote had very limited camoflauge abilities. They would be useless for sneaking around the base, but they could get her inside and into the rafters of a hanger without being spotted. In other words, it was good for fooling at a distance or against adversaries with poor eyesight.

She slipped back into her hideout and did a quick check over her supplies, trying to pass the time and give her brain a break from planning her break in. She estimated that had enough supplies to last her a couple more days before she needed to go foraging again. Water supplies were running low as well.

Problem was that she had already had a couple of close calls when she went foraging and came across a patrolling hover vehicle. Every time she left the shelter, she risked being found. In addition to the danger of finding food and water, she still had no real plan to get in, find Ethan and get out in one piece! It was infuriating!

She furiously went over what ideas she and the symbiote had contributed, which was very minimal, and tried to find some way that they could for a cohesive plan, but there wasn't. She simply didn't have enough for a definitive strategy.

Eventually she came to the conclusion that there wasn't any proper plan she could stick to that she could think of with the limited resources she had, those being her wits and the symbiote. She needed to act soon, before she was found. If this didn't work, well, she didn't want to think about that.

* * *

Dr. Markus couldn't stop fidgeting. This was much more nerve-wracking than she had thought it would be. The council was on it's way to the observation room, while Medusa leader was being brought down to the test chamber. She had recovered enough to be able to walk with minimal pain, but still had plenty of bruises and her black eyes hadn't completely faded. Still, she carried herself with an air of determination. If one looked closely though, they might notice a slight undercurrent of nervousness.

Dr. Markus held her breath as the council filed in and took their seats. She walked over to the control console and picked up a microphone. After tapping it a few times to check if it was working, she began a short speech.

"Welcome to our first test using our artificially bred anti-symbiote. We created this creature through a cloning process using a sample from our first capture and have engineered this symbiote to be compliant with a host organism. Today we will be introducing our creation to it's first host and will observe the bonding process and the abilities that come with said bond.

The council nodded. Dr. Markus turned to the room and pressed a button on the microphone.

"Bring her in."

A door at the back hissed open and Medusa walked inside. The council winced slightly at the sight of her injuries. She saluted the council and stood at attention.

"As you all know, Medusa leader suffered many injuries in her brawl with our other test subject. Symbiotes have been observed to grant hosts a healing factor and her already enhanced strength makes her an ideal host."

The council nodded in agreement. Dr. Markus, a little disconcerned by the council's lack of words, pressed on.

"Releasing subject 1A in three... two... one... Now."

Dr. Markus pressed a large, digital button on the panel. A metal tube with a window on it was raised on a pedestal of sorts from the floor. There was a swirling black and red substance inside. The top of the tube turned once, releasing a hiss of white mist before lifting right off. The black and red symbiote slowly oozed out and fell to the ground with a wet, slapping noise.

Dr. Markus pressed a button on her microphone again.

"We need you to approach and touch it."

Medusa nodded and walked forward cautiously. The slime slowly pulled itself forward, approaching her as well. Once she was close enough, Medusa bent down and stretched her arm towards the symbiote. The moment her fingers touched it, it began to climb up her arm at a moderate pace. Soon it had completely wrapped itself around her left arm and shoulder and was snaking it's way around her torso and down towards her legs. It began to wrap itself around her right arm and eventually had everything below the top of her neck completely encased in a red and black rubbery material. Soon it had completely enveloped her. The face had two of the signature eyes, red patterns around the eyes, and her hair was now many ropes of symbiote mass.

"We have had a successful bond! If you can still hear me, please salute."

Medusa leader snapped a smart salute and stood at attention.

"Good. Now, order the symbiote to retract from your head."

After a few seconds, the symbiote began to pull away until it revealed her head. Much to everyone's surprise, her injuries were completely healed! There wasn't even a blemish from her match against Ethan.

"Could you please decribe what it feels like?"

"I feel... better. Better in every conceivable way! I feel faster, stronger, like I can take on an army with my bare hands!"

Dr. Markus seemed pleased with how the experiment was going.

"Please walk to the wall on the right."

Medusa complied and lightly walked over to the specified wall. After a few keystrokes, a large machine with a bar attached to it emerged from the wall.

"This machine is designed to measure your strength. Lift it as hard as you can."

Medusa grabbed the machine and began to heft it upward. The readings were incredible!

"You may stop now!"

Medusa nodded and moved away from the machine.

"You measured a total of thirty tons! Incredible! Next, see what other abilities the symbiote grants you."

After a few moments, Medusa's hands became sharpened blades, then they became axes, then razor sharp talons. She could create tendrils from her hands that she could manipulate like arms. She could also cling to any surface without claws!

Dr. Markus felt giddy with the success of her first anti-symbiote. It was even more wonderful than she had anticipated it would be!

"Thank you for your assistance. Now, please walk back to the tube, place your hand on the opening and order the symbiote to reenter the tube."

Medusa leader respond, seemingly reluctantly, and walked back to the tube before the symbiote oozed off her body and back into the tube, which sealed itself and went back into the floor.

The council applauded with big smiles on their faces.

"Well done, Dr. Markus! This is indeed a powerful weapon against the invaders! We want your first batch combat ready as soon as possible!"

Dr. Markus beamed.

"Thank you councilmen, and women. I have already laid the groundwork for two more symbiotes, though with some tweaking I could possibly influence what abilities they grant their hosts. With permission, I would like a list of volunteers. Also, I would like them to be non-Gorgon soldiers. I need data to compare against Medusa's."

The council agreed and filed out, offering their congratulations as they went. Things were finally looking up.

* * *

Medusa sat in her room, a little sad that she had to give up the symbiote after the test. She had been apprehensive when she first walked into the chamber, but after bonding to the symbiote and feeling the rush of power that came from it, she never wanted to get rid of it. She felt unstoppable with the creature bonded to her. She could feel it in the back of of her head when it she first touched it. A conciousness, just in the corner of mind. It didn't say anything, only responding to whatever she told it to do. Until that is, she made it go back in the tube. She heard a single word echo through her mind.

_"Partner."_

It called her partner. She didn't know what to make of it. Why did it call her partner?

There was only one person she could ask.

* * *

Ethan had finally decided that he was going to go insane in here. The monotonous days were going to drive him absolutely insane. Not even distracting himself with exercise or his mental crisis helped anymore. He needed to get out of here. He needed to escape this boredom.

As if to answer his prayers, the door opened and two guards started the usual escorting process. The same room with the chair. At least it wasn't that blasted cell they kept him in. He would have taken anything by this point.

He heard the door open on the other side of the glass and he saw that bloody lunatic walk in! he tensed up and quickly leaned off the wall, his hands balling into fists. He had the sudden feeling that things were going to go south very quickly.

"What are you here for?"

She sneered at him.

"What can you do about it? I suppose you could just not talk, but that won't get you anywhere. I've got a few questions about your slimey little friend."

Ethan rolled his eyes.

"You and the rest of the world it seems. I'm just surprised that they haven't gotten rid of me yet, considering how badly I whupped your sorry carcass."

Her sneer quickly became a snarl.

"Believe me runt, If we were to throw down right here and right now, They wouldn't find anything except for a bloody smear on the ground."

Ethan shrugged.

"Whatever you say. Now, I believe you came here with questions? Ask away and ask lots. I've been dying of boredom for the last three days and this is the best I'll get for the foreseeable future."

Medusa glowered at him for a few more seconds before sitting down in the chair. Ethan lazily dropped into his own, a small smile on his face.

"When you still had that symbiote attached to you, did it ever talk to you?"

Ethan seemed to look at her curiously for a moment.

"Oh yes. The only reason I let it stick around was for the sparkling conversation. Okay, yes it could talk. It acted as eyes and ears when I was preoccupied or asleep and actually gave me some interesting insight into the symbiote mind."

Medusa filed that away in her mind. So he did communicate with the symbiote they had pulled off of him, and fairly regularly if he was telling the truth.

"What did it feel like when you bonded with it?"

"When I first bonded with it, I felt a rush of of power, like I could accomplish anything. It faded over the course of the first day, but I still get a rush when I'm swinging through one of those old cities. It's as close to solo flying as we'll get now. Why the sudden interest in being bonded to a symbiote? You seemed rather... Adverse to it up until now?"

"None of your concern. I think you can go back to rotting in your cell now, and not a word of this to anyone or I will make sure that won't even find your body."

She stood up and walked out stiffly. Ethan grumbled as his own door opened and the guards escorted him back to the cell. Still, she had unwittingly provided him with something to distract himself with. What on earth was she suddenly so interested in being bonded to a symbiote? He doubted anyone would know or ponder if a symbiote could talk unless they had been told or had first hand experience...

"Oh no."

Ethan ran to the door and banged on it a few times with his palm.

"I need to speak with Dr. Markus!"

The guards responded at a leisurely pace. It took all of about twenty minutes for the message to reach her, in which time Ethan paced around his cell gripping his head, scared beyond belief of what might have happened.

He knew that his symbiote hadn't taken a new host. If it had and it was Medusa leader, she would have been rubbing it in his face. No, there was something else going on. He doubted they had gone out and just happened to find an Abberation, since he hadn't told them about it. Besides, the symbiote had told him that Overlords and Abberations were genetically indistinguishable from eachother. Whatever the case, there had to be another symbiote in... Wherever the hell they were and that did not bode well with Ethan. Not at all.

After waiting a grand total of thirty five minutes he was escorted back to the room, where he waited five more minutes for Dr. Markus to walk in. Ethan immediately started interrogating her.

"What the hell is going on?"

She looked at him, mildly surprised.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't even pretend you don't know. The same maniac that tried to kill me came here and started questioning me about things that a person would only think to ask if they bonded to a symbiote! I know it wasn't mine since she would have been rubbing it in my face, so what the hell have you been doing up there?"

Dr. Markus gritted her teeth in frustration that Medusa had been found out. It made sense that she would try to make sense of her experience by questioning someone who had gone through a similar one. Still, she didn't have the clearance to question a prisoner whenever the fancy struck her. She would have to be dealt with later. For now, she had to deal with a very angry prisoner.

"Well if you must know, I used a sample from 'your' symbiote to create a brand new one that we can control. The 'maniac' as you refer to her as, was our first test subject when it came to bonding. It was actually quite remarkable to watch. We're one step closer to reclaiming our world."

Ethan let out of hysterical laugh.

"You actually think that this is going to work?! Are you out of your mind?! Do you have any idea what your messing with?!"

Dr. Markus smirked a little.

"I do as a matter of fact. The symbiote obeys commands given without question. I had actually just finished creating two more for testing purposes. We want to give them a proper field test in a few days. But what am I telling you all this for? You've only made my life more difficult ever since I brought you here. Still, you may have a purpose later. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have better things to do than entertain an naive, ignorant boy. Good day."

Dr. Markus stood up and started walking out the door. Ethan snarled and slammed both his fists against the glass.

"MARK MY WORDS, MARKUS! THIS WILL BACKFIRE ON YOU AND YOU'LL COME CRAWLING TO ME FOR HELP! MARK MY WORDS!"

Dr. Markus jumped a little at Ethan's sudden outburst. It was rather uncharacteristic for him. She didn't like it.

Turning on her heel, she turned to face him, her face now stern.

"I doubt that very much. As I said already, the symbiote obeys orders without question. Even if it didn't we have a controlled environment to keep it in check. Perhaps I'll have you brought to oberve a test or two, in irons of course. We don't want a brutal madman roaming free in our facility now do we?"

Ethan snarled and slammed a fist on the glass again before stalking away. Obviously he was of a very different opinion. Dr. Markus walked back to her lab. She wanted to begin testing with her new creations as soon as possible. She had already found two adequate potential hosts for testing. They selected them from the Runners they had aquired during the frustrating beginnings of the program, but now they would serve a purpose. They had been shown video from the first test with Medusa leader as 'proof' that they didn't have to worry about being taken over. The two were a boy and girl, both of them at least a couple of years older than Ethan. She suspected that the girl was older.

* * *

They were both provided with testing uniforms, which were black and bright, diluted blue jumpsuits, and were led into the testing chamber and sealed inside. Dr. Markus began her count down and released the two symbiotes into the room. One was white, blue and a small dash of green, while the other was dark grey and orange. The girl was approached by the white, blue and green one. It approached her with what appeared to be caution. It approached in slow, deliberate incraments until it was a few feet away from her. It was at this point that Dr. Markus gave the order to reach out and touch it. The girl slowly offered her hand. It parted around her finger at first, then slowly latched on and began to crawl up her arm. It also pooled around her feet and began climbing up that way.

In a few long moments, she was now encased head to toe in a white costume with blue markings that wrapped around her arms, legs and torso. She had green outlining the symbiote's eyes and two green strands that came from the corners of her eyes and hung down to slightly passed her shoulders. There were also four green lines lining each side of her neck and cheeks. There was a sort of retractable webbing between her fingers, which had small retractable claws on the fingertips. There was also two green finlike appendages on her forearms that had bonelike spikes that could eject from tips of the fin's 'fingers'.

This left the boy with the dark grey and orange one. This one was a little more brave and immediately leapt onto the offered arm and completely enveloped him in moments. He was primarily dark grey with orange stripes all over his body, smaller eyes, and many spikes all over his body, which could extend even longer. He also had two tendrils coming from his ankles and elbows. Both his hands and feet were clawed.

The tests went rather smoothly. Dr. Markus was delighted to see the genetic tinkering she had done had more or less worked. The girl's symbiote was designed with water in mind. the stripes on her neck and cheeks were actually gills that opened once the symbiote was completely submerged and her feet would become fins once they were exposed to water. In addition to this, she could mildly sense electrical fields in the air around her and do the same much more effectively in the water. Finally, she could launch blasts of bioelectrical energy from any part of her body and stick to walls like any other symbiote.

The gray and orange one could extend all his spikes up to three feet in length and was phenomenally strong, capable of lifting up to fifty tons. It could also swing it's arms to launch the thorns at a target.

The tests went fantastically, as a matter of fact. Once the tests were completed, she ordered them to return the symbiotes to the tubes. When they left, they seemed to be unsure of something. Confused. She had noticed a similar expression on Medusa leader when she left the test chamber. She still needed to deal with her break in protocol.

Still, what had provoked her to going down there and asking Ethan about specifics of bonding to a symbiote? Was there something she wasn't sharing?

It seemed that every set of answers she got only created more questions.

* * *

Ethan was pacing up and down his cell, locked in a state of rage and fear. What did that madwoman think she was doing?! Using his symbiote to whip up new ones?! This could only end horribly. The fact that they thought that they could just play god this way sickened him. But more than that, he was scared. Terrified even. If these symbiotes started behaving like Overlords, this entire facility would be completely overrun in hours at best and his symbiote would likely be killed, provided it hadn't been already. He doubted it. They would want to keep it around for the purposes of harvesting tissue from it.

He needed to get out of here. He needed to break out, get his symbiote and escape.

He had spent the better part of a few hours trying to figure out how. The guards were to heavily armored for him to beat them in hand to hand and he didn't have any access to weapons. Even if he could get the weapons, how would he find his symbiote? He had no idea how to navigate the facility, except for going from his cell to the chair room. He just didn't have the knowledge, nor the resources to break out.

But when did that stop him when he should have died many times before? He had outrun Rippers, symbiotes, escaped ambushes. He could figure a way out of this.

He had to stop being Ethan who had a symbiote and start being Ethan the Runner.

And already he felt his lips curling into a small smile. He had a pretty good idea of how to get out.

He just needed a couple of knives.

**Whooo, that was a long one! I hope everyone enjoys! We'll be going back to chapters ranging from 4000 to 2000 words from here on out with the odd exception, so I hope you liked this one!**

**Creativity: So... Much... Running. Need... Sleep.**

**Author: You do that. I'll wrap up here.**

**See you in chapter 21!**


	21. Chapter 21

**We are back and ready for chapter 21! Hey Creativity! How are you liking the new wheel?**

**Creativity: It's a little easier on the feet, but I think we could do better.**

**Author: This one has double the efficiency of the last one though, so you need to spend less time on it! More fuel for the B.T.I!**

**Creativity: Oh, well that's good news! So, how is Ethan gonna get those knives?**

**Author: Don't be hasty! We can't go spoiling that now can we?**

**Thanks for giving me the support for 20+ Chapters. Hope to see you further down the road!**

Dr. Markus stood in front of the council, giving her report on the latest two symbiotes she had created. She had given them quick identifications since she last addressed the council. The red and black symbiote was called AS-1, the blue, white and green one was called AS-2 and the orange and grey one was called AS-3. She left it to the council to debate code names for operations.

"As you can see, all three symbiotes have been tailored for fighting in different scenarios. AS-1 is designed for close to mid range combat as well as acting as a squad leader. AS-2 is ideal for aquatic operations and can fight extremely well in close quarters and long distance thanks to it's bio-electrical abilities. AS-3 is perfect for crowd fighting with the spines and it's sheer bulk. I have other ideas for the future, but I think these would prove to be a good baseline to produce more."

The council nodded and let her continue.

"Now, I've been studying blood samples from Ethan, Medusa and our most recent subjects to see how being bonded to a symbiote affects the physiology. I mentioned previously that a small percentage of Ethan's red blood cells have symbiote mass still bonded to it, which could explain how he was able to best Medusa leader in their... altercation. However, Medusa and our other subjects don't have nearly the same concentration of mass in their system, almost 0% to be precise. This points to Ethan's significantly higher concentration being a product of extended bonding. With some study, and candidates for testing, I believe we can take the Gorgon program to even greater heights by introducing symbiotic mass, similar to cloning tissue to replace damaged tissue, into a subject's bloodstream to provide physical enhancement, completely bypassing the longer wait!"

The council nodded enthusiastically. It seemed they were all on board now.

"Very well, doctor. We would like to request that you delegate your artificial symbiote research to divert more attention to this Gorgon 2.0 program you've proposed."

Dr. Markus's eyes widened.

"May I ask your reasoning councilman? I personally would much prefer to continue refining my work in artificial symbiotes."

The councilman laced his fingers together and leaned forward.

"I understand that you are engrossed in this particular project of yours, but the council sees much more promise in the Gorgon program you've put forward. We wish to continue both aspects of your research, but we request that you devote more time and energy towards enhancing the soldiers we already have, as opposed to creating brand new ones."

Dr. Markus shook her head.

"I propose that I lay the groundwork for the program and let another take over from there. Do you find this agreeable?"

The councilman looked at the others, who seemed to accept the idea.

"Very well. Begin your work immediately."

Dr. Markus bowed her head and left swiftly. She made her way down to her quarters and started plotting out a process for research. She wanted to begin testing with an ordinary soldier. She started going through a list of the unaltered soldiers that they had on site. There were a few to choose from, but one in particular stood out to her. He had saved three squads from the break in, spent many years on patrol of the wall, and he had a family. He seemed pretty ideal.

She copied his file and departed to speak with him.

Ethan had been formulating a plan for a few days now. He had been visited by one of Dr. Markus' friends again, which gave him a better opportunity to analyse the gear that his escorts as well as the other soldiers had on them. He did see knives on the soldiers, but not on his guards. They had batons with a trigger on them, which he assumed caused the batons to electrify. Those could be useful. He needed a way to get those knives without being shot and having two shock batons would be very handy indeed.

He still couldn't believe that Dr. Markus and who knows how many other lunatics were playing god. The moment he heard about the artificial symbiotes, he could feel his gut turning, tying itself into knots. It was unnatural and it would blow up in their faces. He just hoped he was long gone before then.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when the door was opened.

"Someone else looking for a chat?"

The guard didn't so much as twitch an eyelid. He just motioned for him to follow. Ethan got up and went without a fight. He wasn't planning on escaping, not yet. He hadn't finished his plan yet. No, he would escape another time. For now, he'd see who wanted what with him.

The guards led him to the same room, with the same chair. He was really starting to get annoyed with that chair. You'd think that they'd put something a little more comfortable than that stupid thing. He paced around, waiting for whoever wanted to speak with him. He heard the door open and saw Dr. Markus walk inside. She sat down and waited for Ethan to do the same. He sat slowly and stared unblinkingly at her.

"What do you want?"

Dr. Markus didn't seem fazed.

"I believe that I may have found a use for you after all, besides blood samples. It seems that our test subjects for our anti-symbiotes are rather confused and unsure of their experience. We'd like you to interact with them. We fear that these unanswered questions would prove unhealthy for them, so having someone to offer answers would be best. Oh, and you don't have a choice."

Ethan rolled his eyes.

"Of course I don't. You do realize that you could just give me my symbiote back and let me out and everything would continue on as before. I wouldn't make any moves against you or... whatever this place is, and I'd stop being such a nuisance. Might I add that your soldier friend is probably going to want to finish what she started sooner or later, and it's going to end with only one of us walking out. I can promise you that."

Dr. Markus just got up to leave.

"You'll be meeting with them in a two days. Oh, and I'll have the guards take you to the showers. I imagine you must reek after all this time."

Ethan didn't even respond. He just got up and waited for the guards to take him to the aforementioned showers in the prison block. After he finished a quick shower, he was escorted back to his cell.

He couldn't believe that he was being forced to sit in a circle and share feelings with a bunch of knuckleheads who were wrapped up in these lunatic experiments the good doctor was performing! Dr. Markus truly was trying to torture him.

Well, hopefully this would give him an opportunity to see more of the complex. He hadn't seen any windows up to this point, so that pointed to him being underground. So far, he only knew that he needed to go up to get out. To do that, he needed his symbiote, and for that, he needed to fight his way through trained soldiers, all the while having no idea where he was going.

Surely it couldn't be that simple.

Dr. Markus made her way towards the barracks. Her sidetrack to visit Ethan was a little more productive than her pervious visits. That left her in a more pleasant mood. Now she could go and speak to the soldiers on her list to ask for their volunteership in her new program. The first on her list was one Montgomery Sturm.

It took a few minutes before she got to the barracks and was able to meet with Sturm. However, she was starting to reconsider her decision to offer him a chance to be a part of the program. If she could describe him in a single word, it would be defeated. His skin was rather pale, his hair was unkempt compared to his fellow soldiers, his expression was gaunt and he had that start of an unkempt beard. The fall of the city must have taken a tole on him.

"Mr. Sturm, I'm glad that you took the time to meet with me."

He didn't so much as move a muscle. Hell, he hardly made eye contact.

"What d'you want with a soldier like me?" He asked, his voice sounded slightly bleary and unfocused.

"I am currently heading a program for soldier enhancement, via biological and chemical means. We are beginning a new branch of research and we ned volunteer test subjects, of which you are the first candidate."

Sturm didn't seem to respond, he looked completely apathetic.

"Not sure I should be first Doc. I'm nothing but a failure."

Dr. Markus shook her head.

"I understand that the loss of our city must affect you greatly, but I can assure you that you are not a failure. According to reports I've read, you saved three squads of your fellow soldiers from the symbiote force and you have a functional family to care for."

Sturm shook his head. Dr. Markus saw a tear slide out of his eye.

"You've got outdated information Dr. Markus. I lost my family. I failed them. My daughter was stolen from me by those monsters. I almost saved her, I was so close! But it got away. I failed my baby girl and lost my wife in the process. I haven't seen her since the siege. We were both brought here and she joined R&amp;D. She only works now. S'pose that's how she's coping."

Dr. Markus listened with a heavy heart. Why hadn't this information been present in her report? It seemed rather crucial to know what sort of background her candidates were coming from. Either the report was sloppy, or the council had decided that these soldiers backgrounds weren't important to the report in the first place.

Either way, she pressed on.

"I can't imagine what you've been through, but I'm offering you the chance to become better. I want to give people like you the strength to ensure that what happened to you never happens again. I want to turn people like you into men and women who can fight these parasites head on and emerge victorious."

Sturm looked up a little.

"I can only do that though, if you help me."

Sturm stood up and held out his hand.

"Consider me on board. When do we start?"

Dr. Markus smiled.

"We begin tomorrow. I still need more volunteers."

Dr. Markus stood and left, pleased that she had gotten through to Sturm. It was people like him she wanted to help, to give the world back to. Her research would give humanity the weapons it needed and the strength to wield them.

Speaking of weapons, considering that she was creating a new supersoldier program, she would inevitably need specialised weapons and armor for them. Sturm had mentioned that his wife worked in R&amp;D. Perhaps she could lend a hand. Another thing for her to do list.

She took her time, navigating to her new lab where she would be perfecting her supersoldier program. She had several blood samples she had taken from Ethan already hooked up to analysis machines, which she hoped would shed some more light on just how much the trace amounts of symbiote mass enhanced his body. Several other scientists were working examining data and running simulations on various formulae.

"Jones, what have you got?"

One of the scientists stiffened when his name was called.

"Well, the simulation looks promising in terms of physical enhancements, but I ran a test on some mice a little earlier and the results were rather worrisome. The subjects exhibited unnatural aggression and madness before their body's gave out in a matter of minutes. I was rechecking the data and signal log to ensure that I had created the right formula."

Dr. Markus motioned for Jones to get out of the way so that she could examine the formula.

"Well, it looks to me that everything ran smoothly. I would try to fine tune the formula, perhaps add a sedative to it. I'll run variations on the formula through a simulator while working on my own formula.

Jones nodded, but seemed unsure. Dr. Markus left and brought up a list of personnel that worked in R&amp;D. She wanted the new equipment in the works as soon as possible.

**Well, I felt good about this chapter! How do you guys feel?**

**Creativity: Why bother asking? Of the few people who read this every day, no one's gonna say. They don't care. Heck, they probably don't even read these beginning and end bits!**

**Author: Cork it captain negative.**

**So, Sturm. Like him or hate him? He's going to be key later. Very key. I'm dropping hints. Heheheheheheheh...**

**See ya next time!**


	22. Chapter 22

**Welcome back! First off, I would like to apologize for the lack of uploads. There's actually a few reasons for that.**

**1) I was dry on ideas. **

**2) Chapter 22 was erased from existance when my laptop died on me and I forgot to save my work. **

**3) I think anyone in the post educational experience will know what was happening during this time frame. Exam season.**

**4) I ran out of chapters that I had written so as to have a backup if I slowed down on writing.**

**Creativity: You could have just not studied for your exams.**

**Author: I would like you to stop and consider the words you just spoke. Keep in mind that there will be consequences reflected in your paycheck and immediate health based on your conclusion.**

**Creativity: I retract my earlier statement.**

**Author: Good. Now, lets present our latest chapter!**

Ethan was being through a maze of corridors he had never seen before. There were people milling about, heading this way and that. Eventually they got to a large metal door and pushed him inside. He was in a room that was divided in two by a large glass wall. Well, it obviously wasn't glass. If it was he could have broken through it with little to no difficulty. They weren't that stupid, even if they were close to being that stupid.

He didn't have to wait long before Medusa and two others entered the room on the opposite side. He felt his breath hitch. He knew that posture, the eyes constantly shifting, the muscles taut and ready to spring within an unfamiliar enviroment. They were Runners.

"What the hell are you two here for?"

They looked at him cautiously.

"They sent us in here to talk with you."

Ethan shook his head.

"No, why are you in the compound, or whatever this place is?"

The boy answered.

"Those people in armor grabbed us and brought us here. They said they needed out help recreating conditions for a symbiote's preferred host."

Ethan chose to employ some very choice curses. He and Markus were going to have a very long and pointed conversation. Oh when he got out, he was going to break as much of this base as he could during his escape.

Medusa just rolled her eyes.

"Oh boo hoo. Lets just get this over with. I have better things to do than sit in a circle and share feelings."

Ethan snickered internally at her parroting of his earlier sentiment.

"I don't like it anymore than you do. I'd rather take my symbiote and run as fast as possible, away from here. Blame your bosses, not me."

Medusa snorted.

"Please. I give it two weeks before they pop a bullet in your brain and toss you in the incinerator."

Ethan clapped his hands together.

"Well, on that pleasant note, what are we even here to talk about? Why don't we start with names. My name's Ethan."

Medusa crossed her arms.

"I'm leader of Medusa team. That's all you need to know."

The boy's eyes shifted between Medusa and Ethan, easily picking up on the animosity between the two of them.

"Well, my name is Will."

The girl shrugged.

"I'm Marie. So, why do you two hate each other exactly?"

Ethan sat down lazily in a chair on his side of the barrier.

"She broke into my cell and tried to kill me. In response I beat her into the next week."

Medusa bared her teeth angrily.

"I swear, I'm going to tie your tongue into a knot and strangle you with it."

Ethan laughed.

"Whatever you say sweetheart. Now, what are you two supposed to talk to me about?"

Medusa stalked off towards the door, demanding she be let out. Will and Marie sat down in two chairs, rather hesitantly Ethan noticed.

"They had us bond with the artificial symbiotes they created and we're just a little... overwhelmed by the experience. Dr. Markus thought that since you had already been bonded to one for several weeks, you might be able to help us make sense of the experience."

Ethan shrugged.

"Not sure what help I can offer, but I'll do my best. Fire away."

Will opened with his own question.

"Were you ever fighting your symbiote for control? When I bonded with mine, it seemed rather placid, almost as if it was just going through motions."

Ethan shrugged.

"I never had to deal with it actively seeking control, but it did talk alot. It could transfer knowledge straight to my brain and it would warn me if there was danger around. Did yours ever talk to you at all?"

Will shook his head.

"Not really. I think it might have said 'partner' right before i ordered it back into it's containment cell, but other than that, it just did what I thought. It was like an extra limb."

Marie nodded.

"I had a practically the same thing happen to me. It didn't talk at all except for that partner bit you mentioned, but I could feel it's mind. It seemed to respond positively to me being happy. It felt like it was sad when I made it seperate from me and go back to the box."

Ethan was intrigued by the new information.

"I'm not exactly an expert on this, but this behaviour doesn't exactly strike me as normal. Some information my symbiote shared with me is that symbiotes share genetic memory, and that includes stuff from how to speak, locations where hosts have been found previously, and other such things. Since your symbiotes were created, I assume, from my own, they should have the knowledge that mine had. That's just based on my understanding, so don't quote me on that."

The two shrugged.

"Any more questions?"

The two shook their heads.

Ethan heard a knocking on his door and saw the guards come in.

"Time to go back to your cell."

Ethan huffed.

"And here I thought that freedom awaited me. Oh, how foolish I am."

The guard raised his shock baton.

"Cut the attitude, scum."

Ethan raised his hands in surrender and was 'escorted' back to his cell.

"I would like to speak with Markus if it isn't too much trouble."

The guard grunted and sent a message off to Dr. Markus. Ethan paced his cell, trying to determine just how badly he wanted raze this place when he broke out.

* * *

Markus powerwalked down to the 'interview room' where Ethan would be waiting. part wondered what he wanted to bug her about this time. the rest of her wondered just why she kept indulging him. He only made their visits aggravating. She had suspected he would want to talk with her about his little therapy session with the test subjects.

She pushed the door open and saw Ethan waiting in the chair. To say he looked angry didn't do it justice.

"You're just trying to piss me off now arent you? You're sending your soldiers to go and kidnap people for your sick experiments?! I'm not sure why I'm even surprised!"

Dr. Markus sighed.

"I can assure you that they are in a much more hospitable environment in here than they are out there. They don't have to worry about having they're throats ripped out in their sleep and they get three meals a day, much like you I might add."

Ethan shook his head and started laughing a little. Then more. Then a lot.

"Get a clue Dr. Oblivious, they don't like it here! They didn't ask for any of this! None of us did! You dragged us into your mad scheme to play god and now you're expecting us all to be grateful for it? Do you really have your head shoved so far up your..."

Dr. Markus stood up suddenly.

"Don't you even dare finish that sentence. I expressed, very clearly, that you were only alive because you are useful, but you are very quickly wearing away at that usefulness by your deliberate difficulty. You are going to watch the next demonstration of my work and if you do anything to undermine it, I will have you dissected without putting you to sleep first. Are we clear?"

Ethan laughed.

"Whatever you say doc. You aren't nearly as intimidating as that Medusa character you keep around and she doesn't scare me nearly as much as I would be scared of a rabbit."

Dr. Markus swept out of the room in a huff. Ethan was just as difficult as ever, but he seemed to be genuinely unfazed by the prospect of being cut open while conscious. Was he just insane or had he given up?

She shook her head and went back to the lab where she had just finished establishing the final formula for the new supersoldier program. She had combined two serums from the original Gorgon Program with a new serum that she had derived from several chemicals and symbiote mass, creating a brand new serum. This one would directly bond to the patient's cellular structure and enhance their speed, strength, reflexes and intelligence many times that of the patient's original capabilities.

She was leaving this demonstration to those beneath her station so that she could return to her life's work. She had come up with a demonstration for the capabilities of her artificial symbiotes and was anxious to show it to the council. First however, she needed to demonstrate the Gorgon 2.0 process to the council. She was praying that nothing went wrong.

She stood up in front of the council and smiled as best she could.

"Esteemed council, we are about to take the next step in soldier enhancement. Me and my team have not only created a brand new formula for soldier enhancement, but we have also managed to develope a new single serum that we have tested to produce results in the same margin as the Gen1 Gorgon troops that can be produced much more easily and in much less time! Gorgon 1 troops are now much more viable as a wider devision of out military while Gorgon 2 troops can take the mantle of the Gorgon 1s!"

The council applauded as Markus dipped her head in a bow.

"Now, on to the main event. We have selected a soldier by the name of Montgomery Sturm, who fought valiantly in the battle to protect our city, as our first test subject. Mr. Sturm, if you would?"

Sturm walked through a door to the side. He had started taking better care of himself, his hair was clean and cut military style, his unkempt beard had been shaved off and his eyes had a little more fire in them. Looking at the people in the room, other than the council, she could see Sturm's wife sitting near the back.

When Markus approached her about developing equipment for the new Gorgon program, she had agreed readily, especially upon hearing that her husband had agreed to take part in the program. She tackled the program head on, creating a brand new glider and armor, an electroblast gauntlet, flamethrowers, sonic cannons and concussion rockets built into the glider and twin combat drones that could detach from the gauntlets, each equiped with sonic projectors. They were works of art in Markus' eyes. Mrs. Sturm really was quite talented in her work.

Markus snapped back to reality and turned and saw that they were just starting to strap Sturm in so that they could administer the serum.

"If we are all prepared, I would like to thank Mr. Sturm for his willingness to participate in this next step. I would also like to thank his wife, Audrey Sturm, for designing the equipment our new soldiers will use in battle against the symbiote threat."

There was a polite applause before Markus turned back Sturm, who was ready for the process.

"And now, we begin."

The syringes were injected into Sturm's bloodstream. He made noises of discomfort, but he didn't seem to be in any immediate physical pain. The crowd watched in awe as his muscles began to bulge and grow, veins becoming much more pronounced. After several long moments, it all came to an end. The doctors unstrapped him and he stood up. The serum had obviously worked. He did however seem to have a bit of a headache. Markus was sure it was because of the sudden changes to his brain chemistry. The Gen1 Gorgon soldiers had experiences something similar.

The results on the screen showed a dramatic increase in muscle mass and bone density as well as vastly improved cognitive function.

The council seemed very pleased.

"You have outdone yourself, doctor! Very well done indeed."

The doctor smiled.

"I'm pleased you approve of the program, councilman. Now, I would like to return to my first program. With your permission, of course."

The councilman nodded.

"Be on your way, but remember to assign a new head to this program."

Markus nodded and left, thankful that she was back to her favourite project. She had experienced a bolt of inspiration during the program and wanted to start working right away.

**The breakout is coming soon, I promise. It'll probably be in the next chapter and we can get to something I've been building to for a while (In my head)**

**Creativity: You guys have no idea how long he's been raving under his breath when he thinks no one is around about this.**

**Author: Cork it.**

**Anyway, I'm glad I have the time now to work on this story. It's easily the best one I've written (In my humble opinion) and I feel that you all might agree with that as well. **

**See ya next week!**

**P.S.**

**I added this after the original upload of this chapter, but I'm too lazy to create a separate A/N chapter, which would require me to actually change the chapter name to fit the actual chapter, which is too much work for me because I am the laziest mother trucker on the planet.**

**I'm doing my first ever Christmas special! I might also do a New Year's special as well if the mood strikes me.****It's going to be a two part special with the first part being posted on Christmas eve, later in the evening. I will post the second part on Christmas day, but the time will be indeterminant. It will be before 12:00, so just as a heads up.**

**Also, that means I will be bumping up the usual chapter to Friday. This is so that I can use some characters for the special that wouldn't make sense in the story context. This is part of the story's canon.**

**See you next Saturday for part 1 of the very first Christmas Special ever written by me!**

**Bye bye!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Okay, so just how many of these things are we talking about? **

**Author: Creativity, I told you this a hundred times. The black market for exotic rubber ducks is supposed to meet two doors down on ****Thursdays****.**

**Creativity: Oh, sorry. Oi, Joe! We gotta meet next Thursday!**

**Author: I'll never understand your obsession with those. **

**Anyway, We're here with chapter 23! Also, this opening bit has to be cut short, so we'll see you at the bottom of the chapter for...**

Ethan couldn't shake the gut feeling that something was wrong. It had started a few days ago and only gotten worse as time went on. He tried to distract himself by coming up with more scenarios of escape as well as just daydreaming, but he kept coming back to the knot in his stomach.

Most of his daydreams and unfocused thoughts gravitated towards Kyle and Cathy. He wondered if they had reached the meeting by now and were waiting for him and Ana, or if they had been captured and brought here as well.

He also wondered how Ana was doing. She had barely recovered from the infection before he was captured and dragged off to wherever he was. Hopefully she was okay.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a clanging on the door. Two guards marched through it and slapped a pair of handcuffs over his wrists.

"The doc wants you in attendance for one of her demonstrations."

The guards escorted him through the hallways and up into a large laboratory. Markus was waiting there, seeming very pleased with herself.

"This is perhaps my finest work yet! This will certainly be an effective weapon against the enemy."

Ethan rolled his eyes, but kept his mouth shut. With any luck, this was where his symbiote was being held and he could escape. He looked around the lab, searching for any sign of where it was being held. So far, nothing.

His search was cut short when a group of men and women in official looking clothing walked in and took seats that had been set up on an observation platform. Dr. Markus smiled and addressed her audience.

"Welcome councilmembers! I've brought you all here for a dual demonstration of our anti-symbiote program. First, I would like to introduce you to AS-04, my latest creation!"

Dr. Markus pressed a button on a control panel in front of her, which caused a door in the floor of the testing chamber to open, and a hosted symbiote to rise out on a platform. This one was primarily black, but it had a dark green patterning on it that formed many pointed patterns on it's body. It had a slightly bulkier build than Ethan and was a good two, maybe three inches taller.

"This symbiote is capable of spraying an incredibly powerful acid from it's palms and is incredibly fast. It also has X-Ray vision for tracking purposes as well as near perfect camoflauge."

The council applauded and Markus bowed her head.

"Next, I wanted to show you a training simulation we created for our current test subjects. AS-01 through 04 will participate in this simulation, which will test all their abilities and their natural combat prowess."

She pressed another button, which opened three doors at the back of the testing chamber. Medusa, Will and Marie all walked out, symbiotes attached to them. The test chamber began to rumble as sections of it began to rise and fall, creating an artificial environment. Several sunken areas filled with water. Turrets sprang out of all sides and powered up.

"In this simulation, the test subjects will attempt to destroy all the turrets without being shot themselves. The simulation will begin in 3... 2... 1... Begin!"

Immediately, all symbiotes leapt away as the turrets unleashed a storm of electric blasts. Marie immediately dove into the water and unsheathed the bone spikes in her arms. She rocketed out of the water and slashed a turret in two. She ducked out of the way as a turret blasted at her and sent her own electrical blast at it, causing it to overload and shut down.

Medusa simply formed massive claws on her hands began slicing through everything she could reach. Several turrets locked onto her and fired, but she just leapt up and launched a bladed tendril the top of her wrist and sliced them to ribbons.

The new symbiote simpy leapt from cover to cover, launching blasts of acid as it moved from one cover to the next. It had already taken out the most turrets of everyone there.

Will has having more difficulty as his symbiote made him much bulkier than the others. However, he also found that he could take the turrets' blasts without much difficulty. He charged them and tore them apart with his claws, occasionally tearing one off of it's platform and throwing it at another. He occasionally launched spikes his back or his palms as a method of counterattack.

Within a few minutes, they had cleared out the entire room of the turrets.

Ethan had to admit, they were very impressive. He still had a great deal of contempt for Dr. Markus, but he could respect that she had created some impressive scrappers. Then he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Something he had missed before.

There was a large tube that was connected to a large machine that had blue light on it that said 'Cryosedation active'. The tube was frosted over, but he could see a lot of black material inside. That was it. His symbiote. Now all he needed to do was get to it.

Then out of the corner of his eye, he saw Medusa staring at him. The symbiote was still covering her face, but he could see the eyes of the mask narrowing as they glared at him. He could also so the tendrils on her head occasional moving, twitching towards him. He didn't like it. Not at all.

Then everything went dark.

The lights went out suddenly and an alarm started whining over the intercom. Red lights flashed into existance as a voice began yelling information over the alarm.

"Alert! Alert! We have a code Gamma in progress, repeat! Code Gamma! All personell head for shelter! Repeat, code Gamma!"

Dr. Markus's eyes widened in shock. Ethan didn't like that look.

"Uh, doc? What does code Gamma mean?"

"It means that a symbiote has just broken into the base."

* * *

Ana's break in had started off without a hitch. She got into the base and then into the ventilation with relative ease before she managed to find her way to the security center by following the patrols. From there, she had knocked everyone out without using a single web or spike and steal a tablet that had the building's schematics loaded onto it. It had been going well until a guard walked in and saw her climbing back into the vents.

She escaped by the skin of her teeth and managed to keep the guard quiet by knocking him out and webbing him to the ceilling. However, it was obvious that her little stunt had only bought her a couple minutes at best. Soon enough, the facility was in full lockdown and She had been forced to abandon the events short seconds before they electrified them. She had then been forced to fight her way towards the only cell block, where Ethan was likely being held, provided he was still alive. She was about three quarters of the way there when she came across a patrol. She disarmed them and webbed them to the walls before continuing on her way.

"This day just keeps getting better and better. Do you have a trace we can follow?"

The symbiote had been trying to pin down Ethan's location during fight but had lost it after they were clipped by a sonic blast.

_"Wrong way... Go left."_

The symbiote was getting better at speaking to her in actual words. It could string words together in longer sentences, but had to pause longer between said sentences.

Trusting it's homing sense, she changed direction and followed the symbiote's directions as they homed in on Ethan's symbiote, which they would need once they actually broke him out. Ethan was a skilled fighter on his own, but he wouldn't fair very well against a small army of trained soldiers in tight quarters.

She rounded a corner and stopped dead. Standing in front of her was her father. At least, it looked like him. He was taller and more muscled than she remembered. He was wearing an armor suit that looked very heavy. And scary.

He turned and saw her. His eyes slowly turned wrathful. He raised his hand and bellowed as he unleashed a blast of electricity from the gauntlet. Ana darted past it and ran along the wall, spraying webbing from her fingertips, plastering him to the wall.

"Sorry dad." She whispered as she kept running, following the symbiote's internal radar to track down Ethan's symbiote.

* * *

Ethan struggled against the guards' iron grip.

"If one got in, there could be a whole pack of them! You need me and my symbiote out there, Markus!"

Markus shook her head.

"We have four others that could defeat you easily. You aren't going to escape with these pathetic attempts to talk me into giving you the key to my research's success."

Ethan snarled and struggled harder. Then he heard the sound of glass breaking. He turned and saw Medusa had smashed her way through the glass and was staring at him like a lion eyeing an antelope. She hissed and lunged forward, tendrils springing from her shoulders and lashing themselves around the guards, slamming them against the walls and pinning them in place.

"I've been looking forward to this for upwards of a month and a half, runt."

She grabbed Ethan around the throat and slammed him into the ground, raising her other claw in preparation to strike.

"Captain Naedeer, release him immediately!"

Medusa looked up at Markus, who had just done the shouting. Her eyes narrowed and, to everyone's horror, revealed a maw of red and black teeth with a black void behind it.

"Sorry, doc. We don't take orders from you. Oh, and we are not Captain Naedeer anymore. We are Medusa!"

Several of her hair tendrils began to writhe and shot forward, coiling around Markus and lifting her into the air. To her horror, each tendril had it's own set of red and black jaws and two symbiotic eyes.

"Now, where were we?"

She raised her claw to strike again, but yelled in pain as an electrical blast struck her from behind. Marie and Will were standing in the gaping hole that Medusa had made when she broke through the window.

"Now, we don't think that was very nice!"

Medusa lashed out at them with two massive claws and grabbed them, pinning them two the walls and stabbing two spikes through their sides. Not enough to kill them, but enough to incapacitate them with pain.

Ethan struggled to his feet and ran for the tube. Medusa noticed this and narrowed her eyes.

"Oh no you don't you little rat."

She sent a spiked tendril at him which wrapped around his waist and began reeling him in. looked down and saw one of the guards, passed out and abandoned when Medusa attacked Will and Marie.

He ducked down and grabbed the stun baton, slashing it down at the tendril. Medusa yelped in surprise and pain before snarling and swinging a blade at him. Ethan smirked and dodged out of the way, holding his hands out and letting the blade cut his bindings.

From there, he made a break for the tube. Tearing it free of the machine, he smashed it on the ground, ignoring the pain that came from the glass carving gashes into his hands. The symbiote inside immediately swarmed up his arms and encased him in his costume. Twin claws shot out of the top of his hand and he dropped into a fighting stance.

"Ready for round four?"

* * *

Ana barrelled through the hallways, listening to the symbiote's instructions as she homed in on the location.

Behind her, she could hear her father charging after her. It turns out that whatever had happened to him had made him much stronger, and his new weaponry could free him from her webbing in a few seconds. She kept sprinting and turned a corner, spraying as much webbing as she could around the entrance as she could, hoping to buy herself precious seconds.

She finally broke through a door to see something she wasn't expecting.

Ethan was staring down another symbiote, this one red and black, which had two other symbiotes pinned to the wall. The red and black one in particular was very unnerving. It had several tendrils that looked like ropes of hair, but each one had another set of eyes and jaws on it.

Ethan looked up and cocked his head.

"Okay, I was only aware of four lab experiments! Markus, what else have you been hiding?!"

Ana was just confused. She allowed the symbiote to pull away from her face for an explanation.

"No Ethan, it's me! Now, can we get out of here?!"

Ethan didn't respond verbally, but he did nod.

"Just gotta take care of this bundle of joy first."

The bundle of joy snarled at him.

"We will not listen to your aggravating voice anymore! Even if we have to tear out your voice box to do it!"

It shrieked and charged, dropping the two other symbiotes as it did.

"You make sure they're okay! I got this!"

Ethan began to brawl with the monster as Ana rushed over to the two hosted symbiotes. She bent down and checked their pulses. They were okay. The symbiotes had already started mending the damage to their hosts. They struggled to their feet, holding their sides where the wounds were.

"Can you all move?"

The two of them nodded. They turned to see Ethan delivering a left hook, followed by a right upper cut, which launched the symbiote into the air and through the ceiling. Ethan leapt up through the hole, which began to emit the sounds of a very violent battle.

However, that was quickly undercut when they heard a smashing noise. They all turned to see Sturm in the doorway, both gauntlets sparking with energy.

"None of you are leaving this place alive."

The three hosts took up fighting stances.

"So, before we start fighting my dad, can I get some names? I'm Ana."

"Will."

"Marie."

Their voices sounded slightly distorted, but you had to strain to hear it. Will formed a cluster of spikes on his arms.

"Why exactly are we fighting your dad?"

Ana shook her head.

"He's not in his right mind. He must of been experimented on after the city was captured. Please don't kill him? He may be a little insane right now, but he's still my dad."

Sturm bellowed as he leapt forward, swinging an electrified fist at them. They all scattered, with the exception of Will, who took the blow head on and grabbed Sturm's fist before throwing him against the wall. Marie leapt forward and delivered two electrical strikes of her own before leaping clear of Sturm's wild swing. Ana jumped forward and kicked him back into the wall before spraying as much webbing as she could from her fingers to pin him down. Will grabbed to large pieces of rubble and slammed them down on Sturm, which Ana also glued to the the cocoon she had created.

"It's gonna take him a while to get out of that. Let's go help Ethan with that other symbiote."

"She calls herself Medusa now."

Ana filed Will's response away and leapt up through the hole to see that Medusa had Ethan on the ropes. She has lashing out with dozens of tendrils, forcing him to evade and not allowing him to counterattack. Ana held out her palm and fired several spikes at Medusa. Unfortunately, she saw them coming and ducked out of the way. Medusa hissed and sent a tendril after Ana. Ethan took advantage of the distraction and shot two weblines past Medusa and launched himself at her with as much force as he could muster. His feet transformed into blades and swung his feet in a sissor motion, slicing through several tendrils. Medusa shrieked in rage and pain and delivered a blind strike to Ethan's side, sending him back through the hole in the ground.

Ana jumped down to see that Sturm had already freed himself and was gearing up for an electrical blast. Medusa jumped down and raised her claws, which were now at least a foot long and looked very painful. Will and Marie were both wounded and were backed up against the wall. Ethan was surrounded and didn't know who to attack first.

Medusa took this opportunity and snared his leg with a tendril and swung him at Sturm. Sturm, who was unable to react in time, was caught in Medusa's swing and was launched with Ethan into an exposed wire which was sparking wildly.

Both of them began yelling in pain as electricity surged through them. They were both launched clear after a few moments, but there was obviously some damage. The veins on Sturm's neck began to bulge and turn a sickly green, along with the skin surrounding them. His eyes became a similar green and his canines sharpened into intimidating fangs. His fingernails became long and sharp. He stopped groaning in pain and started to laugh, which slowly built into a cackle.

Meanwhile, Ethan's symbiote was writhing. It was shifting and seemed to be in great physical turmoil. Medusa prowled towards him like a predator, hissing as she did. The tendrils on her head also began to hiss. She raised a claw and swung down, carving four gashes along his chest. Ethan bellowed in pain and his own arm around in retaliation. However, as he did, white strands began snaking their way down the outside of his costume, forming a very loose web over his arm, eventually reaching his hand. It formed ivory claws around his fingertips as he slashed Medusa.

Medusa let out a wail and backpedalled, staring at the wound. The symbiote was steaming and wasn't regenerating like it should. The white mass retreated down Ethan's arm and vanished, leaving no trace of it's existance.

Ana helped Ethan to his feet and they both checked on Will and Marie. Thankfully, their injuries had healed nicely.

"Lets get out of here!" Ana shouted.

They all began a sprint for the exit, following Ana since she knew the way out. Then Ethan remembered something.

"Where's that acid guy?"

Marie responded.

"He took off when the alarm started. He's an ordinary soldier, so I assume that he just went to look for your girlfriend."

"She is not my girlfriend!"

They ran as fast as they could, eventually making it to the surface and escaping into the open. Unbeknownst to them, Medusa was tailing them. Sturm just lay in the rubble, cackling on and on.

* * *

Dr. Markus looked around at the wreckage that had been left behind. Her lab was in shambles and three of her four creations had just broken out of the base. AS-04 had come back and taken her to safety before leaving to help the others who would have been trapped.

The council had evacuated to a safe room the moment the trouble started. They would definitely blame her this disaster. Sturm had gone completely insane by the time they found him. The serum had reacted to an electric shock of some sort and triggered a massive mutation. He had been locked up in the maximum security cell to protect everyone. Thus far, he hadn't stopped laughing.

Medusa had gone rogue and was assumed to still be hunting Ethan.

Ethan. He had been right. She had created two monsters, one of which had escaped. Sturm's wife had withdrawn to her quarters and refused to come out. Someone had gone to take her to a supervised location and had saved her from an attempted suicide. Her work had brought nothing but misery in the end.

"You've got a look that says you're beating yourself up to much on this."

She turned to see AS-04 standing there. the symbiote had pulled away from his face, revealing him to have ginger hair and blue eyes.

"The council will have my head mounted on a wall for this."

He patted her shoulder.

"Don't worry about that. I've got your back. They won't argue with me on this. Besides, two of the council are my parents. We'll work this out."

Dr. Markus shook her head.

"Why are you helping me?"

He shrugged.

"Guess I just feel like helping. Everyone deserves a chance to clean up their messes, and to realize that some of the mess is someone else's to clean up."

He walked away, leaving her to ponder his words.

**Oh, I loved writing this one. So, who likes the idea of Goblin Sturm? He isn't actually going to be called Goblin Sturm. Just Goblin. Also, I really wanted to have an acid symbiote. So, anyone else got names? Not just for Ethan and Ana's "Hero Names", but Will, Marie and AS-04's as well. Just for the record, Marie in this story is pronounced MAH-RY, not Mary. **

**Creativity: I think it was kind of obvious that you were going to make Sturm into the Goblin.**

**Author: Let's let the audience decide. Also, I got you a little something for Christmas.**

**Creativity: OOOOOH! GIMME GIMME GIMME!**

**Author: Patience.**

_**Hands Creativity a medium sized box covered in wrapping paper.**_

_**Creativity tears it open and begins to tear up.**_

**Creativity: A complete set of 1900s mint condition collector's rubber ducks... You are the best boss ever!**

**Author: Yes I know. Christmas special part 1 is up tomorrow! Hope you all are excited! Hey Creativity, what did you get for me for Christmas?**

**Creativity: That will be given on Christmas eve, at the staff christmas party!**

**Author: Very well. **

**Oh, and one last thing. I decided to switch the Christmas Special to be chapters in this story. I came to the realization that carving out two chapters into a separate story was a really stupid idea. Just a heads up.**


	24. Chapter 24 (Christmas special part 1

**Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas Eve! **

**Creativity: This party is pretty good so far, but when are we doing the secret santa?**

**Author: After the chapter.**

**Anyway, welcome to part 1 of my first ever Christmas special! I know that my symbiote story seems to be a little bit out of place, but I think you'll all enjoy it! So, let us begin.**

Ethan took a deep long breath of fresh air. Him and his fellow hosts had been on the move for several hours now, with Ana filling him in on her new friend. He was still having some difficulty wrapping his mind around it, but he rolled with it. In turn, he explained where their new friends had come from.

"So, that scientist was trying to create artificial symbiotes to use as weapons against the normal ones? That's a lot to take in."

Ethan nodded.

"Yeah. I was talking to my own about the experience and it's rather horrifying to listen to."

Will and Marie seemed a little uncomfortable when he finished talking. Their symbiotes had been made from tissue that had been harvested from Ethan's symbiote, so it made them feel a little guilty for the suffering it had gone through. However, there was more important questions on their mind. Marie decided to voice their concerns.

"Medusa went all nuts after being bonded to that thing. Do you think that'll happen to us?"

Ethan shrugged.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much. She was already a murderous lunatic before she was bonded to that one. I'd say that having that much power at her disposal finally made her snap and ditch her 'military disipline'."

Will and Marie visibly relaxed as they all kept running south. It was noticably harder now. Snow had been falling for a few weeks now and the horizon was completely white.

After about an hour of plowing through the snow, they stopped near a frozen lake for a break. Ana flopped down in a large snowbank and sighed, letting the symbiote pull away from her face. She looked up and saw snow was beginning to fall. Will, Marie and Ethan all climbed up trees and sat on branches, looking back in the direction they had come from.

Well, Will tried. Due to his new bulk, the branch snapped and he fell flat on his back in a pile of fresh snow, sinking almost a foot in. Ana couldn't help but snicker a few times. Will grumbled a little and shook the snow from his head and shoulders. Marie started giggling as well. Ethan had enough self control to refrain from audible laughter, but he did grin a little under the mask.

"Oh, you think it's funny do you?"

Will grabbed a handful of snow and chucked it straight at Marie, knocking her off her branch and into the snow. Everyone cracked up a little as Marie struggled to dig herself out. She looked up at Ethan, who was trying his hardest to not look like he was laughing and narrowed her eyes. She gathered a small bioelectrical charge in her finger and fired it straight into the small of his back, sending him plummeting off of his own branch and landing headfirst in a snowbank. Everyone started howling with laughter. Ana couldn't resist rubbing salt into the wound.

"Oooh, that's a facewash if I've ever seen one!"

Ethan pulled his head out of the snow and grumbled a little before shooting a webline onto Ana's shoulder and swinging her up and down into a snowbank. She hadn't had time to reform her mask and ended up getting a proper facewash. She clawed her way out of the pile with snow everywhere. She shook her head to get the snow off and let the symbiote reform the mask, drying her off in the process.

"Okay, that was fair."

They all laughed about it for a little while before they sat down and admired the scenery around them, having the symbiotes pulled away from their faces. Then Ana realized something.

"It's almost Christmas, isn't it? It's feels strange, not celebrating it this year."

She looked around at everyone, who was looking at her with confused expressions.

"You guys haven't heard of Christmas?"

They all shook their heads. Ana felt a pang of sadness for her new friends.

"Care to explain what Christmas is?" Will asked. Ana obliged immediately.

"During December, people who lived in the city celebrated a holiday where we would exchange gifts and spend time with our immediate and extended families. There's special food for the season and we decorate a tree with ornaments. It's one of my favourite holidays. You do know what a holiday is right?"

Ethan nodded.

"We had them when I was living in the mountains, but no Christmas. Usually it was a day to relax or visit with friends. I had a friend named Morris who was an unbelievable climber. He used to climb trees and throw pine cones down at passerbys when he had free time. He and I used to have competitions to see who could hit the other with a pine cone first when we had 0

Ana smiled a little at his story.

"Sounds a lot like the snowball fights me and my friends used to have when we were younger."

The group sat quietly for a while before carrying on their way, making their way through the snow at a steady pace. The cold didn't proove to be an obstacle. As it turned out, the symbiotes were much more at ease in colder climates. They traveled for a little over a week before they reached the edge of the forest where they could see a few crumbling skyscrapers off in the distance. They all agreed that it was in their best interest to head there and forage for food.

It took a few hours to get to the city. Snow was falling in a thick, white sheet, making it very difficult to see. Ana and Ethan both swung up into the buildings to search them for caches while Will and Marie searched the ground. It took them a few more hours, but they eventually scraped together enough food for everyone to eat at least one helping. Will started searching for wood to burn but was having no luck where they were. There weren't any trees going inside any buildings on the street, so they packed up their supplies and made their way down the street, looking for somewhere else to try and make a fire. Ana and Ethan joined Will and Marie on the ground since it was becoming impossible to see eachother from different elevations. After some more searching, they found a large building with a tree growing out of the middle. They climbed up to the third level, which had much better protection from the snow and set about getting a fire going to cook their dinner.

The meal wasn't anything special. Just some rehydrated meat and some water. They all ate their portions and started settling down to sleep. Ana and Ethan created a web barrier around several holes in the building to keep the snow out. Ethan, Will and Marie both fell asleep pretty quickly. Ana couldn't fall asleep.

She got up and swung up two the fifth floor and saw on an outcropping of rock, looking at the snow falling. She hadn't really had time to process what had happened in that base. Ethan's symbiote had gone through a horrific experience over the last month and a half, they found three people who were hosts of man-made symbiotes, one of which was absolutely insane, and she watched her father turn into a cackling monster. It was a lot to process. Especially what had happened to her dad. She had known for a time that all that time patrolling the wall had taken a toll on him, but she never imagined that he could become that... thing.

She shook her head in an effort to get those negative thoughts out of her head. She may not be in the same circumstances as last year, or the previous ones, but it was still Christmas season. Besides, it wasn't like she was alone. She wouldn't be able to celebrate it like she would usually, but she could still celebrate somehow.

Ana smiled a little underneath her mask. She had an idea of how to cheer herself up. But she had to go about it very carefully. She didn't want anyone getting wind of it before

The next day, everyone woke up and made their way outside. The sun was out and it had stopped snowing. The ground was covered in a thick layer of snow. Deciding that it was going to be too much effort to plow through, they climbed to the top of the building and jumped from rooftop to rooftop. They transversed much of the city before Ana noticed something.

"Isn't that the older shelter?"

Ethan looked down and his eyes widened under his mask.

"Oh, this is fantastic! I wonder if the stockpile is still there!"

They jumped to the building and crawled down to find that the stockpile was indeed still there. There was enough food to last them for a few days if they were generous with their meals and enough to last them for a two weeks if they ate sparingly! Will and Marie looked shocked by the size of the stockpile.

"You actually found this much supplies?!"

Ethan felt a little pride, even if the symbiote had helped alot with the searching. Ana looked around, feeling a little nostalgia for the location. Even if it hadn't been that long since they had last been there. She looked around and saw the spot where the siblings had done their training before Medusa attacked them. Then she saw where she had stayed until she was allowed to start walking around again. It struck her as funny. In a way, this place had become her home. And in that way, she, Ethan and the siblings had become a family.

Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad Christmas after all.

Ethan was sorting through the stockpile, dividing everything into sections. He had food in one pile, tools and equipment in another, clothes in the next, and medical supplies in the last. They were rather lacking in the medical supplies. They had did have some basic medicine and they had enough gauze and thread for stitches (Not that they needed it with symbiotic regeneration). Will and Marie were stacking up firewood. Ana looked at all this and came to an inescapable conclusion. All this work and no fun would not do. Not at all. And she knew exactly how to fix that.

She climbed up to the top floor of the building, which wasn't too far, and began making a pile of snowballs. Once she had a reasonable pile, she grabbed one and lowered herself down on a webline until she was back in the shelter. She took aim and hurled it at Ethan.

The snowball struck him right in the back of the head, and he jumped and formed his hand into a blade. Ana howled with laughter and made a hasty retreat back to the rooftop. Ethan saw her going and narrowed his eyes.

"Oh, you aren't getting away. There will definitely be retribution for this."

He used his webbing to slingshot his way up to the top, only to be met with two more snowballs. Ana laughed again and grabbed more from her pile. Ethan landed and dodged her next two shots before scooping up a handful of snow and packing it together. Ana had already grabbed two more snowballs and let fly.

Ethan jumped over them and returned fire, nailing Ana right in the shoulder. She yelped and jumped away as he webbed two from her pile and swung them down at her. He immediately started working on another one, but was hit by a rather large snowball that actually launched him a few feet away. They both looked to see Will and Marie standing by the hole in the roof. Will was making an extra large snowball to replace the one he had just nailed Ethan with, while Marie was leaning on her left leg with the same hand on her hip while tossing a snowball up and down in her right. Ethan gulped.

"I think we're outmatched."

Ana mirrored his reaction.

"Retreat!"

They both leapt off the building as Will and Marie launched their first salvo. Ethan webbed the building and swung around, scraping the edge of the building to premake a snowball for him. He came rocketing around the other side and hucked his snowball straight at Will. He scored a direct hit between Will's shoulderblades and had already dropped out of eyesight by the time he turned around. He swung around and made another one using the same process as before and was preparing to make another pass when Marie's snowball nailed him right in the side, throwing off his aim. He winced in preparation as Will's massive projectile smashed into him midflight and launched him across the street. Will whooped in delight and high-fived Marie. Their celebration didn't last long though.

While they had been Focusing on Ethan, Ana had gone to an adjacent rooftop and made a snowball that put Will's previous two to shame by a wide margin. She smirked as she saw them celebrating and shot a webline onto her masterpiece. She began spinning around, swinging the snowball as she did before she finally let go and launched it straight at the unaware duo. They simultaneous screams of terror were the sound of success to her as she saw her creation flatten them. Ethan joined her on the roof and high fived her before yelping and diving sideways as Will and Marie, who had dug themselves free, began throwing chunks of snow from Ana's attack at them in retaliation.

The battle continued for almost an hour before they all collapsed on the snow-covered rooftop laughing.

"Man, I haven't had this much fun in years."

Will nodded in agreement to Ethan's statement.

"Yeah, that's definitely going to be something I remember for a long time."

Marie smiled.

"I used to have snowball fights with my friends all the time when I was younger."

The group sat up and went inside to start working on dinner. They were having rehydrated meat and plain water again.

"So you grew up in a large group as well? Where did you live?"

Marie rested the stick she had been poking the fire with on ground and sighed.

"I grew up in a small nomadic group of Runners that lived way more up north. We kept to the forests mostly, but we also went to the coasts from time to time. We didn't have to deal with Rippers to often and when we did, we often outnumbered them."

Ethan seemed interested.

"I heard about the northern group from my dad. Apparently he had a brother that joined that group. I never saw him though. That group never came to the annual gathering."

Marie nodded.

"When we turn sixteen, we're all offered the choice to do one of three things. Either we can stay with group, leave for four years and come back on the fourth, or leave forever. As far as I've heard, no one takes the middle option."

Ethan nodded and poked the fire a little with his own stick. Marie kept going.

"I turned sixteen during the spring, and I chose to leave. I guess we got our own group going now huh?"

Ana smiled a little.

"Yeah. We got our own little, goo covered family."

Everyone smiled. Ethan got up and added more wood to the fire before going to collect a pot he had put outside earlier, which had been collecting snow. He held it over the fire and melted it down into crystal clear water. He poured the water into four metal cups he had found and handed them out.

"This'll taste a lot better than the stuff in the bottles."

They toasted and took a long drink. After that, they shared funny stories around the fire and listened to Ana talk about some of her favourite Christmas memories and shared some special moments in their lives. They talked long into the night, and as it snowed all through the night, they all felt genuine joy, for three of them, it was the first in a long time.

**And so, part one of my christmas special draws to a close. Yeah, maybe picking up right at the escape was unnessesary, but I feel like it went well. I hope you all enjoyed this.**

**Creativity: Hey boss, I almost forgot. Here's your Christmas present.**

**Author: Oooh, let's see.**

_**Unwraps it and falls to his knees in joy.**_

**Its... beautiful... indescribable... its... its...**

**Creativity: You're welcome. Well, since the boss is a little preoccupied, allow me to sign off. Ahem:**

**Merry Christmas to all! And to all, a good night!**


	25. Chapter 25 (Christmas Special part 2

**Good morning and merry Christmas to everyone! I hope you all have a wondeful day and are able to spend it with your loved ones.**

**Creativity: A little sappy, don't you think boss?**

**Author: It's kinda hard not to be a little sappy around this time of year. We can't let the trees have all the fun.**

**Creativity: Seriously? Sappy? Trees? That's the best you've got?**

**Author: I'm out of material until the new year. So, let us impart unto our lovely readership, the gift of Part 2 of our Christmas special!**

The next morning, Ana got up and stretched as far as she could. She had slept very well that night. She could see through her still sleep bleared eyes that everyone else was just waking up. She got up and walked over to the pile of wood they had started on yesterday but noticed something strange. It was higher than yesterday and had evenly cut logs as opposed to the branches and dead bark that was sitting on the bottom. She looked over at the rest of the group, who were just standing up, and called out to them.

"Was anyone chopping wood last night?"

Everyone shook their head and walked over to investigate. Indeed, the wood pile was higher than it was yesterday. The group seemed a little unsettled, but they decided to just go about their day. Ethan and Ana started working on breakfast while Marie and Will went out scavenging. By the time Marie and Will returned, they had prepared more rehydrated meat and roasted some local greens to break the monotonous meal. They all ate and talked about how the wood pile had been built up.

"The logs look like they were all cut clean through with a blade, and they're to thick to have been from any of the nearby trees, unless we count the branches. Even still, they don't have the same bark. Seriously, where did that wood come from?!"

Will seemed the most perturbed by this. The others had, over the course of the conversation, come to realize that they shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Sure they were still curious, but they weren't in a frenzy about it like Will was. It was kind of funny, watching him trying to figure out what happened.

"There weren't any footprints on the ground so they would have had to be floating off the ground to leave the logs here..."

Finally, everyone had enough.

"DROP IT!" They collectively shouted.

Will looked around a little embarassedly and went back to his meal. Once he was done, they all went on another scavenging run. The run was about four hours long and turned out very, very well as they happened across a large deer, which Ana killed with a spike. Will carried it back to the shelter, where Ethan and Marie took care of cleaning it out. They buried the offal several blocks away and got straight to cooking the fresh meat when Ana suggested they indulge themselves that night, for a little celebration. The idea went over rather well and they prepared the meat in a few ways.

Some of it they stewed using a pot from the stockpile, some of it they fried on flat stones that were heated against the fire, and the rest they attempted to slow roast on a spit. It turned out not too bad.

Once they were done, they gathered around and enjoyed the rather large meal. The three runners in particular enjoyed being able to eat as much as they wanted for a change.

Ana got up and went outside and looked up at the night sky. There were no clouds, giving her an unobstructed view of the sunset. The orange and pink that lit up the sky was something wonderful to behold, especially from her vantage point. She sat there for a while, humming her favourite Christmas songs to herself when she heard snow crunching behind her. She looked to see Marie sit down next to her, followed by Ethan, then Will. She smiled under her mask and kept looking out at the sunset, enjoying this quiet moment with her friends, semi-old and new.

Eventually, they decided to go back inside and restoke the fire and talk about how best to procede. Ethan grabbed a few logs and tossed them on the fire before laying on his back, arms folded behind his head. Will mirrored him.

They sat and talked for a while, sharing stories and information, generally avoiding the topic they all knew they should talk about, but didn't want to. What was their next move? As it was, they needed to get moving soon and they needed to figure out where. It had been established already that they were going to stick together, so they needed a consistant supply of food and water. They had enough food to last them for a while, but it wouldn't last forever.

Ana was trying to listen to Ethan talk about various places his parents had told him about that had been previous safe havens for Runners, before they were driven out by symbiotes or Rippers, but smoke kept blowing in her face. She finally had enough and got up to move, circling around the fire. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something glinting in the dark recesses of the shelter. She moved to investigate and discovered that there was something shiny hidden under the rubble of a collapsed section of the wall that they had webbed over.

The others noticed her and walked over to see what was going on. Ana had started to carefully move the rubble aside. They all joined her as they slowly moved the rubble away. What was underneath shocked them all, especially Ana.

There were presents. Actual, wrapped presents were hidden in the rubble. There were a total of seven, each wrapped in red and green striped paper. Ana's jaw practically hit the floor. How were there gifts hidden there?! They removed them carefully and spent a good while staring at them. Will had started obsessively trying to decipher how they got here like he had earlier in the day with the wood pile. It took a lot longer this time before the rest of them shouted at him to let it go. Ana collected her wits and looked at the others.

"Well, I guess we should open them."

They started with a cylinder shaped gift first, which was revealed to be a tube with a wood plug in the top. Marie carefully pried the plug off and reached inside to reveal a rolled up piece of paper, which was immediately followed by a compass. Upon unrolling it, they discovered it was a map. There were two circles on the map, connected by a line with an arrow at one end. there was a message written on the paper that read "Use these to take the next step into the future."

The next one was a inside a box. They tore the box open to find more paper inside. Ana recognized it immediately.

"It's a calender!"

She checked and saw that whoever had left it hald also left a note attached to the first page that said it was a week before New Year as well as another message. It read "One takes for granted the knowledge of the passage of one day to the next."

The third gift was another box. When they opened it, Ana almost squealed with joy. It was two boxes, one containing tea and the other containing hot chocolate. There was another note attached that read "There has to be something Christmas-y to celebrate with."

The others noticed her reaction and looked at her questioningly. She grinned under her mask.

"You will have to try this tonight. It's fantastic!"

The fourth gift had Ana's name written in very neat cursive in the top left corner. She opened it and felt her heart skip a beat. Inside was her old journal! She had lost it a few years ago and had missed it for a while. She never bought another one because she kept clinging to the hope that someone would find it.

The fifth had Marie's name written on it in the same handwriting. It was the largest one of the seven. She unwrapped it and looked inside and felt a couple of tears fall from her eyes. Inside was blanket made from animal furs.

"This was the blanket my family gave me when I turned ten. I had been using my grandmother's up till then. It gets really cold back home, so this is really important to me, for more than just warmth."

The sixth present had Will's name written on it. He ripped it open to reveal a metal hatchet with a chip near the bottom of the blade. He looked at it, seemingly not believing his eyes. There was a note inside that read "To die for others can be a great sacrifice. To live can be a greater one."

"This belonged to my dad. That chip, he told me it got there when he fought a mountain lion to protect me and my mother when I was a baby. Heh, mom says the story is half true and that the chip actually came from when he missed the lion and hit a rock."

The final gift had Ethan's name written on top. The box was smallest of them. He opened it to reveal a stark white stone that seemed to swirl under it's surface. The stone was attached to a black cord. Underneath the stone was a note that was a longer than the others. Ethan read it over carefully.

"I wish I could have given this to you in person, but sadly we cannot meet. Not yet. This stone holds a power that you and you alone can harness, but you must learn that power for yourself. You have a great trial ahead of you, but it is nothing compared to what comes after. You will be pushed to the brink and you will suffer a pain unimaginable, but you can endure it. You must, or we all shall fall. I leave you one last gift. Remember these words. _When comes the time, trust the wolf to guide you._"

Ethan looked at the pendant curiously. He slipped it around his neck and the symbiote sucked it under the suit. He looked back at Ana, who was busy brewing hot chocolate for everyone. He strolled back over and looked at the drink. Wisps of steam curled off the top. She smiled and offered everyone a mug from the stockpile. They all took one and toasted before taking a sip. The runners were all immediately hooked by the taste of the hot chocolate. Ana smiled as she saw her friend's faces light up from the drink. They talked around the fire and finished their drinks before cleaning them out with the snow outside.

By the end, they had come to the decision to follow the map and compass to reach the spot the map indicated. Finally, they became too tired to continue and said their good nights. Marie wrapped herself up in the blanket and dozed off in moments. The others quickly followed suit, sans Ana, who stayed up a little longer to take one last look at the stars before whispering to her new family, "Merry Christmas." And falling asleep.

**Well, It may be short, but I thought it was sweet! **

**Creativity: I think you were reaching on this one boss.**

**Author: Then why are your eyes all red and puffy and why do you have tear tracks on your cheeks.**

**Creativity: Ummm... Er... Onion eating contest? Also, are you going to tell the audience what I got you for Christmas?**

**Author: I want to but... It's... So... Glorious... I can't muster... the strength...**

**Creativity: If you say so boss. Boss?**

_**Author is on his knees, eyes watering**_

**Creativity: Well... Ok. I'll sign off again.**

**We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!**


	26. Chapter 26

**Well, it's New Year's day. No, I'm not doing another special. Frankly, I think one a year, maybe two is enough. Maybe you'll see a Halloween special next year for whatever story I'm working on primarily, but who knows. Hey creativity, you got a New Year's resolution?**

**Creativity: What is there to change in perfection?**

**Author: You say as you're attempting to fit ten donuts into your mouth?**

**Creativity: I have no idea what you're talking about.**

**Author: Whatever**

**I just want to say one thing. When I checked the traffic graph for this story today, it said that 247 people had read my story in three days. That's pretty terrific. I just want to say thanks again. Lets reach 100 in a single day soon!**

It was gray out. The sky was gloomy, casting a dull color over the landscape. The group of hosts had been travelling for two weeks now, following the map to the indicated position. They were carrying rations and water to last them for several weeks, aided by the symbiote's strength enhancement. Will was especially helpful, able to haul much more than the rest of them. They were also carrying the gifts left to them by a party unknown.

By Ethan's estimate, they were roughly a two thirds, maybe three quarters. It was getting late, so they found a spot to bunk down that had reasonable shelter and started a fire before cooking some rehydrated meat for dinner. While they ate, Ethan kept examining the map, trying to figure out what they were making their way towards. The map had cities marked on them already and the circle wasn't near one. None of the runners had any idea of what might be waiting for them.

Once they were done their dinner, Ethan and Ana created a web barrier between several trees that lined the outside of their campsite, then everyone settled down to sleep. They all rested peacefully that night.

* * *

To say that Dr. Markus wasn't having a mental breakdown would be a bald faced lie. Both projects that she had proposed and spearheaded had gone completely awry and destroyed a good section of the base during the process. Today, she was being dragged before the council for a 'report' on the situation. That was code for 'she was about to float up shit creak in a canoe with no oars.'

She had occupied herself the last few weeks by trying to determine why the serum had suddenly produced the ghastly side effect in sturm. Thus far, the only answer she could pull from it was that something caused the symbiotic material in the serum to undergo a rapid and drastic mutation. However, what was more unsettling that the changes hadn't ceased. They were much slower in pace, but she could see the changes still happening. The green skin Sturm had developed was slowly morphing into something more akin to scales. The scales however, were fused together and were just as flexible as normal epidermis. It was truly baffling, and very disturbing. Sturm's mental state hadn't improved either. In fact, it seemed to be getting worse. She was hoping to plea to the council to allow her to attempt finding a cure for Sturm's condition, but she saw the chances of that to be very slim.

She hadn't noticed she was already at the council's meeting room until she almost walked face first into the door. She took a deep breath and steeled herself for the oncoming onslaught.

The report went about as much as she expected. She spoke very little and endured a berating on nearly every count of what happened, even on things that weren't her fault. She offered her plea to the council, who considered it, but not before informing her that both projects would be continuing. Just not under her supervision.

She grudgingly accepted this as her lot, until they told her who would be taking over the symbiote project.

"We will be assigning Dr. Hawthorne to your anti-symbiote project and we will be assigning Dr. Cathaway to your Gorgon 2.0 program."

Markus was incredulous.

"Council, I understand your decision to pull me from these projects, but for the love of all that remains sacred in this world, you cannot put Hawthorne in charge of this project! It can only end in disaster!"

The head of the council frowned at her.

"We've already had one disaster. Your crediblity is spent on this matter. We trust Hawthorne more than you right now. You let your fascination with those creatures outweigh your better judgement. The decision is final."

Dr. Markus nodded and acknowledged this through gritted teeth.

"May I ask the council what I will be assigned to next, if anything at all?"

"You are being moved to site beta to work on a tracking mechanism for your escaped pets. I'm sure that is something you won't be able to land us in deep trouble with."

Markus nodded and walked out of the room. She couldn't believe that the council was putting Hawthorne of all people in charge. She had worked with the man before. The moment he got his greasy hands on the project, he would create monsters of unspeakable horror that would destroy all they had built. The council had yet to tell her whether or not she would be allowed to attempt to treat Sturm, but she already knew the answer. The council had deliberately avoided it when she brought it up. They were going to let him rot in that cell.

"Well well, Emily! Fancy meeting you here!"

She recognized the voice instantly. Only one person could make the hairs on her neck stand on end the way that eerily smooth, oily voice could. She turned around to see Hawthorne standing there. His face was pale and his long, greasy hair hung down, slightly obscuring his eyes. He had round, horn-rimmed glasses and long, spindly fingers. His labcoat was impeccibly white and the odor of bleach seemed to hang in the air around him. She sometimes wondered if he washed himself with it. His thin, sallow lips were stretched in a triumphant smile.

"Hawthorne. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

His face couldn't look like he could internally gloat even more.

"I just wanted to wish you a safe flight to site beta! I've heard travel is becoming more difficult as of late. I also want to assure you that I will ensure that your hard work wasn't for naught."

Markus resisted the urge to gag. Hawthorne couldn't honestly think that he was fooling her did she. The last project Hawthorne had worked on was the prototype for the gorgon protocol. He only cared about results and reputation at any cost he deemed acceptable. That usually meant any cost that didn't detract from his reputation. She had heard about some of the downright cruel things he had done to people during his career. He had pushed through to human trials on untested formulae for skeletal enhancement and caused horrific deformities and downright suffering to his test subjects. She had observed one such test and witnessed the ribcage of a subject grow so big that it burst out of the poor soul's chest and grew spikes on the injection points! Needless to say, Hawthorne didn't care. after the subject was put out of his misery, Hawthorne ordered him thrown in the incinerator without a second thought!

She knew that once Hawthorne got her research, he would just make symbiotes with the intent to kill other ones as a method of saving time and getting the results the council wanted. She wanted to create symbiotes that obeyed the wearer without question. It seemed she had found success in three of her four attempts. the creature that Medusa leader had become referred to itself as 'we', so she could only assume that both creatures were acting in similar mindsets. Medusa had wanted to kill Ethan before his escape and made an attempt to do just that, so perhaps the symbiote cued in on that desire and prodded her to try again. Or maybe Medusa just had another go for the hell of it. Whatever the case, it was clear that at least AS-01 should not have been paired with Medusa leader.

Waking up from her tangent line of thinking by Hawthorne requesting she accompany him down to her former lab to ensure that the equipment was back in working order. She accepted, realizing that she had an possible opportunity to form a contingency plan for when Hawthorne's plans eventually put the world in danger.

The walk down was swift, mainly due to Markus, walking as fast as she dared to reach the lab as fast as possible. Once there, she pretended to make sure the equipment was as it was before, while secretly plugging in a drive to copy all the data stored within the lab's 'black box', which stored all data, be it formulae, schematics or otherwise. The drive had a special device inside that masked it from detection by the central nexus that read all communication between devices in the base. She removed the drive and pocketed it while guiding Hawthorne over to a large device with a glowing blue light in the center.

"When I first aquired the symbiote, I extracted some mass from it and used a protein gel to trigger a growth reaction. This device contains that same mass. It's a little low right now since I used the majority of it in my early experiments, but with enough protein gel, I suspect that it will regrow the mass in a timely manner."

While she explained the functionality of the machine to Hawthorne, she discreetly extracted a small amount of the mass into a cryotube the size of a pen that could right in nine different colours. She slipped it into her pocket with no one being the wiser, and finished her explanation before leaving with all haste. The transport was waiting for her, with her luggage and nessesary research for the assignment. Much to her surprise, the host of AS-04 was there to see her off. She pulled him aside and handed him a small device.

"I don't trust Hawthorne as far as a toddler could throw him. When his continuation of my research lands us all in hot water, use this to signal me."

He nodded and gave her a two fingered salute before walking back into the base. Markus boarded the ship and strapped herself in for a long ride.

* * *

Ana's eyes cracked open to see the sunrise just starting to reach over them. She sat up and had the symbiote pull away from her face so that she could rub her eyes. She stood up and saw that everyone else was still asleep. She moved around them carefully and slipped through the gap they had left in the barrier last night to stretch her legs a little. She hadn't really had much time to really enjoy her powers, sans the snowball fight they had on Christmas eve. She spent the next hour or so, leaping, flipping, performing elaborate aerial tumbling acts and generally giving herself a good workout.

When she went back the barrier, she saw everyone was just sitting up. After a few minutes of letting their brains come up to speed, they set about packing up and making breakfast. Today, they had mixed roots and other greens they had chanced upon, roasted on sticks. After they finished eating, they tore down the web barrier and threw snow over it to hide it before continuing on in the direction they had been heading in the previous day.

They travelled for a few more hours before they reached another city. They made straight line through it, taking caches of supplies as they went. They were almost out when the runners noticed something.

"Guys, have you seen any Rippers lately?"

The group shook their head. This seemed to put the runners in an uneasy state. Ana didn't seem to understand why. Marie answered promptly.

"Usually there's a small band of them in every city and they usually make a fair bit of noise. Not enough to draw in symbiotes, just enough that anyone within about a block or two can hear them. At least they normally are. They've been getting smarter recently and I don't like it. I've seen two groups that were tearing eachother apart one day, suddenly grouped together with another pack. It's really unsettling. The fact that the city seems so empty is also a cause for worry."

Ana suddenly understood the unease. The group continued on in silence. Soon, they saw something a tad bit strange. Ethan especially seemed uneased.

"I know those mountains."

He checked the map again and suddenly felt as though his heart was being squeezed by his ribcage. Marie and Will looked at eachother before realizing what was going on.

"That's the old safe haven. Why would the map be guiding us there?"

They kept going until they reached a large opening that had long been barred by the remains of a rockslide. They climbed over it and made made their way through. There were telltale signs that the mountains had once been inhabitated. There were old tools, scratches on the trees, even the odd skeleton or two. They eventually bunked down in one area and set up a fire. Ethan kept looking at the map.

"Why back here? Why do we need to come here?"

He held the map behind the fire for a better look. His eyes widened with shock.

"Hey! Guys, you need to see this!"

by the light of the fire, they were able to make out patterns written in invisible ink. There was a cave with a drawn symbol over it. the symbol was a triangle with the right side being drawn thicker than the other two.

"We need to find the cave with this symbol over it!"

They immediately started searching. They searched for close to two hours before Ethan found something at an altitude that was in the danger zone for anyone without proper equipment or a symbiote. They found the symbol carved on a rockface. Ethan started examining it and to their surprise, it swung open, revealing a numerical keypad. They tried all sorts of combinations, but they couldn't open it.

They were about to give up when Ana had a stroke of genius. She typed in the combination: 2, and to their surprise, and Ana's triumphant smile, the rock face slid open to reveal a secret path. They looked at eachother then proceded inside, their symbiotic night vision revealing the path.

"How did you know the combination?" Will asked. Ana smiled under her mask.

"That symbol is an old letter that is also a word. It's pronounced theta. So, I guessed that the combination would be the numbers that corrisponded to the letters that make up theta."

They kept walking and eventually reached an old elevator. The thing didn't want to move, so Ethan just tore it open and cut the cable, letting it fall down to the bottom of the shaft. They could walk on walls anyway. They made their way down to the fourth floor, following the power cables that ran along the outside of the elevator shaft, and tracked them down to a large breaker panel. Ana flipped the breakers into the 'on' position, causing the old lights to flicker back to life. That's when Ana noticed something.

She hadn't payed much mind to it originally, but she had seen a logo on the base's staff when she made her break-in. It was a dark blue disk with a black rim around it with a grey human silhouette with the alpha symbol. This one had the same symbol, except that instead of alpha, it had the theta symbol.

"Guys, I think this place is a base like the one you guys broke out of."

The others seemed to agree, but that didn't explain why it was abandoned. They retraced their steps and made their way up to the third floor. They explored the place cautiously. There were lots of scratches and scoring on the walls. All evidence of a fight, and a particularly violent one. Eventually they found a security room. The screens were lit up, but several of them were displaying static. Ana sat down at the chair and began scrolling through the security recordings. Eventually she got to the last recording. What they saw chilled them to the bone. unhosted symbiotes were surging through the facility, washing over people and dragging them along in the flood. One of the external cameras showed the symbiotes breaking out of them mountain, raining down from the rockface. Ana moved back and found how the symbiotes got in there.

There was a large lab with lots of tubes, each containing several symbiotes. They were performing experiments of some sort, until one group of symbiotes started to rapidly expand until the tube began cracking, before it exploded in a shower of glass. The swarm of symbiotes immediately began latching onto whatever living organism they could find, aside from eachother, and started breaking open the rest of the tubes.

The group looked at eachother before turning to Ethan, who was staring at the screen numbly. His hand was trembling before balling into a fist.

"Those arrogant, pig-headed, idiots did this. They killed all those people."

He walked out and stopped in front of the logo. They watched as his arm turned into a two foot long blade and sunk it through the symbol with a bellow of rage. He left the blade imbedded in there for a few moments before slumping over. The three others watched as he pulled the blade from the wall, very numbly. The rest of the group walked over and put a hand each on his shoulder. He looked at them all and returned his gaze back to the ground.

"Is that why we were supposed to come here? To find out why all those symbiotes appeared here and killed of my parents and hundreds of others?"

Ana shook her head.

"I don't think so. Lets keep looking around. Maybe there's something else to find."

Ethan nodded and joined the group. On the plus side, this base didn't seem to be as large as the previous one. They searched each floor and worked their way down. They actually found a storage area full of food as well as an area for agriculture! They worked for a couple of hours before Ana called everyone.

"Guys, you aren't going to believe what I found!"

**Cliffhanger! I hope everyone likes where the story is going! So, what are the opinions of Hawthorne? I find it more interesting to write the sections for Markus than the goo crew I've been putting together.**

**Creativity: Hey boss, where's the workout room again?**

**Author: Second floor, left of studio 2000. **

**So, we're approaching 4500 views as of this writing andI think we can push for 5000 by next week. It looks to me like the story might take a little longer to finish than I anticipated. Who knows, maybe we'll actually make it to the 100k words mark!**

**See ya next week!**


	27. Chapter 27

**Greetings my lovely readers! Welcome to chapter 27! Wow, it feels like just yesterday that I uploaded chapter 20. For all those wondering, I will not be doing something special for chapter 30. If we get to chapter 40, I probably will do a special for that one. **

**Creativity: You know boss, we're actually closer to the 100k mark than you realize.**

**Author: Really?**

_**Checks indicator**_

**Well whaddaya know. We are getting close! The plan is coming closer to fruition. I hope everyone enjoys chapter 27!**

Markus was parked behind a lab desk, working through her research as well as the research already on site on tracking symbiotes through satellite tracking. She had been looking at the satellite images of a wide area around site alpha, trying to locate Ethan, the blue symbiote and her escaped prototypes, but she hadn't yielded any results yet.

"Dr. Markus, dr. Larkson had called for you. He says it's urgent."

Markus stood up and stretched before making her way down to Larkson's lab. She pushed the door open and saw Larkson staring at a large computer screen. Larkson was the lead science officer of site beta. He also was responsible for monitering communications between the other sites and site beta. He had a strange look on his face.

"I was doing a manditory comms check when I came across this."

He motioned to a screen, which displayed the beta symbol at the center of the screen, with several other symbols indicating the other sites surrounding it. There were yellow, pulsing lines connecting the outlying symbols to the beta symbol. Larkson motioned to a symbol on the screen. Markus took a closer look and saw that it was the theta symbol.

"What's so special about the theta symbol?"

Larkson shook his head and sat down on his desk chair.

"Site theta was one of the earliest sites that were constructed around the same time as the city. It was built in the mountains and designed with symbiote capture, containment and study as it's highest priority."

Markus cocked her head.

"Why wasn't I assigned there? Seems to me that would have been the first place the council would ship me off to."

Larkson sighed.

"I'll bet they would have been very eager to send you there if they had the chance. One of their experiments caused the symbiotes to escape their confinement tubes. They broke the rest of the test subjects out and killed or assimilated everyone in the base. The base went offline after that and no one's ever gone to investigate since then. The common conclusion is that the place is still inhabited by symbiotes, but now the power has come back on. It happened a few hours ago, according to the computer."

Markus had to agree that it was indeed strange.

"That is concerning, but why did you call me about it?"

Larkson brought up an image on his computer. It was an image a stealth drone had taken. It was an image of Ethan, the blue symbiote, AS-02 and 03, all in the mountains.

"Are you saying that they found site theta and turned on the power?"

Larkson shrugged.

"All signs point to it. Oh, and your first monster was seen a few miles behind them. Best guess is that it's stalking them."

Markus nodded.

"Medusa leader, or I guess it's just Medusa now, made two attempts on Ethan's life, with and without the symbiote. It makes sense she would still be after him."

Larkson shrugged.

"You know those beasts better than me. The council will want to know if you have a plan."

Markus shook her head.

"If we tell the council, they'll just send a strike force in after them. They won't stand a chance. Plus, I doubt Ethan will be inclined to let them out in one piece this time."

Larkson crossed his arms.

"You've been referring to that black one by name a lot. Are you sure you don't have impaired judgement on the matter?"

Markus shook her head.

"Believe me, our relationship was purely antagonistic. I've seen what he's capable of, especially when he's angry. He beat a gorgon squad captain within an inch of her life with his bare hands and no symbiote. The last thing we want to do is back him into a corner."

* * *

Ethan and the rest of the group were looking at a large computer moniter with the image of two scientists. Ana looked at everyone before pressing a button on the keyboard.

"This is dr. Silas and dr. Morrison. We are the lead scientists of site theta. We have been tasked with symbiote weakness analysis and mass eradication tactics. We have been on this site for a total of five years and in that time, we have discovered that in an estimated total of six, maybe seven years, the symbiotes will have the means to bond to every living organism of planet earth, then they will move on to the next world."

The group looked at eachother in shock. the video kept rolling. Now it was dr. Morrison speaking.

"In addition to this, we have discovered that the council has secretly put a project into motion that, if successful, will destroy humanity as we know it as well as the symbiote colony on earth. They refer to it as 'Project Ark'. We do not know the details of the project, only that it is meant for mass genocide of every living thing on earth. If anyone is watching this recording, we have one chance. We must defeat the symbiote menace before the council enacts Project Ark and razes life from our planet. To do so, we will need the help of the symbiotes."

The group looked back and forth at eachother again.

"During our private experiments, we discovered a subset of symbiotes that do not seek control of a host, only seeking a partnership. These symbiotes can give us the means to end this threat, once and for all. If the council gets wind of this message, they will do everything in their power to prevent this knowledge from reaching others. The symbiotes, sans the subset we've discovered, are connected to a hive mind that is controlled by the queen. Destroying the queen will collapse the hive mind, causing the vast majority of symbiotes to die from the shock. Not all of them will, but it will be more than sufficient to reclaim our world. We place the fate of life on earth in your hands now."

The video feed cut out, then flickered back into existance. Now it was just dr. Silas.

"The council has discovered our message and used a suicide runner to sabotage our experiments and destroy the facility. I pray that this message survives and that someone finds it, else our deaths are for nothing."

Ethan looked at the screen. This was it. Whoever left them the map knew about this message and sent them here to listen to it. They wanted them to stop the symbiotes before this council of maniacs decided to wipe the earth clean and start again.

Then the screen changed again. This time, it was another written message. it read "I cannot fight this battle, but you can. This old base should serve as a temporary shelter for you to determine your next move. However, before you do, you may wish to visit your old friends before you join this fight."

Ethan and Ana both knew who the friends in the message were. If they were going to enter a situation that could lead to their death, they should at least let the siblings know that they were alright. First things first though, they needed to determine their next move.

They left the room and decided to make a proper meal and discuss how best to procede. Ana raided their new pantry and pulled out a few large cans of stew and started cooking them in the base's kitchen. Ethan and Marie went and scouted the outside of the base to make sure that there were no enemies that could make their way inside while Will helped Ana with searching for something else to go with the stew.

When the meal was ready, they all sat down and dug in. It was safe to say that the meal was much better than usual. When they were done, Ethan pulled out the map again.

"The main nest is right here That's at least three, maybe four weeks of travel ahead of us. If we want to end this, that's where we need to go."

The others nodded, but didn't seem so sure.

"Look, I'm all for taking back the planet, but don't you think we should get some help with this?" Marie asked. Ethan shook his head.

"Who's going to help us? We're hosts. We're on our own."

Will shook his head.

"Not nessesarily. I know Marie's and my own symbiote aren't part of that subset that those scientists on the recording were talking about, but I know your's and Ana's are. Couldn't they find more like them for us? Maybe we can strengthen our numbers that way."

Ethan shrugged.

"Maybe, but that still doesn't mean that people will want to bond with those symbiotes. Lets face it. They won't believe us even if we told them."

Ana looked determined.

"We can still try. If it doesn't work, we just think of something else."

Ethan conceded to Ana's idea and got up.

"I think we should get some rest. We'll see if we can find some sort of transport in the morning and head south."

The others agreed and laid down to rest. Ethan actually went and spun himself a web hammock to sleep in. The others watched as he drifted off to sleep. Coming back to this place had really put him through an emotional workout. They were a little worried about him. He seemed to have been absorbed in this mission to take back the world a bit too much, and seemed intent on keeping it limited to just the four of them. It didn't bode well.

* * *

Back at site alpha, a man in a lab coat was hurrying down the hall to the council room. He was admitted after a few minutes of waiting and entered swiftly.

"I was sent here to report that the signal from site theta has just come back online."

The council looked around at eachother, all seemingly greatly worried. The head councilman stood up.

"That will be all." He said forcefully. The man bowed and rushed out. the councilman marched over to a phone on the wall and seized it, punching in a number.

"This is the council. Site theta has come back online. I want you to send a detachment of mechs from site epsilon and destroy it, ASAP!"

He slammed the phone back and sat down.

"We're too close. We can't have anyone stopping us now!"

He pulled a communication device from his suit and pressed a button on it.

"Get Sturm equipped and deploy him to site theta, immediately!"

* * *

Markus paced around her quarters, trying to make a decision. If Ethan and the other symbiotes were indeed at site theta, and evidence greatly favoured them being there, then she had to make a choice. If site beta had found found out about them in a few hours, it could be assumed that site alpha would also be aware of it too. However, the drone had been launched from site beta, so they probably didn't know who was inside. They would likely send a team to investigate and if they found four symbiotes inside, the place would be brought down on top of them.

So, she could either do nothing and let them sort the mess out themselves, or warn them of an impending attack.

Ethan had made her life extremely difficult, but when the chips were down, he had been right. She created a monster that he saved everyone from and he hadn't attacked anyone without provokation. Plus, he seemed to be the leader of the group of symbiotes that had escaped, sans Medusa, so they must really trust him.

When Hawthorne eventually twisted her research into a killing machine, she would need all the help she could get. That meant she needed to get into Ethan's good books.

And that meant she would have to warn him of the impending danger.

**Yeah, we're starting to get there. We're probably going to start spending more time with Hawthorne and Markus just because I find there's more interesting stuff to be had there.**

**Don't worry, you won't be without our four heroes for long periods of time. That time is just going to be a little shorter. Besides, we still need to deal with Sturm. Medusa also isn't out of the picture either. We'll have some of her later. **

**Creativity: Everything is coming together...**

**Author: Oh yes... Yes it is...**


	28. Chapter 28

**Hey, you guys came back! We're approaching chapter 30! So, like I said, we're going to be spending a little more time with the scientists. I find it more interesting to write, so I assume it's more interesting to read.**

**Creativity: Yeah! It also reduces the amount of runnin I gotta do!**

**Author: If you laid off the junk food, you'd be in terrific shape, you know.**

**Anyway, Here's 28!**

Dr. Hawthorne was known mainly by reputation. He was famed for developing a serum that drastically increased mental agility, creating a new super material for body armor and for several extremely powerful sonic weapons. However, those who knew him better knew that he was really a cruel, sadistic man who only lived to increase his reputation. He was also known ,by those in the business, to often pounce on projects that appeared to be floundering, only to miraculously pull them success.

One such project had already experiences great success, and was suspected to revolutionize the war on the symbiotes under his supervision, was dr. Emily Markus' anti-symbiote project. The project was made to replace another project that sought to create a bacteria that fed in symbiote mass. Hawthorne had been eying Markus's project eagerly and hungrily. This was the project that would cement his reputation as the greatest asset humanity had in it's fight against the symbiote invaders.

Currently, he was in the process of making a formula for mass production of his own symbiote soldier. He admired Markus's delicate craftsmanship of the original four that she created, but they were too complicated for making a small army. They needed simple creatures who's capabilities were good enough to please the council, but was simple enough to mass produce. He had followed the same outline his entire career. Make something quick and easy to produce, and people will jump on it faster than something elegent, but difficult to make. "Why focus on fixing a tank when you can deploy three more just like it?" He said.

He had already isolated several sequences he needed and was working on the final one. He was certainly grateful to Markus for doing much of the work for him. It would have taken him much longer without her existing formulae and research. Perhaps he should mention her when he was accepting an award for this project. Remind her that he was using her success to bolster his own reputation. He cracked his neck and smiled as he cracked the last sequence. He immediately sent the formula to the synthesis machine. It began working immediately, and soon his creation was complete. This one had simple tendril abilities and basic camoflauge. It was a green so dark, it was nearly black.

"Inform the council that I have created a symbiote for a main fighting force."

The lab technician left immediately. Hawthorne smirked as he started working on the next one. This one needed range capabilites. That only needed a few changes to the current sequence.

* * *

Markus was seated at her desk, working on the next stage of her contingency plan. She was developing a special armor set that was very thin and flexible. It wasn't nearly as tough as Gorgon armor, but it could take bullets well enough. She had finished the chestplate as well as the left arm. She was working on the right arm when Larkson called her to his lab again. She groaned exasperatedly as she started making her way down there. What could he possibly want this time?

She pushed open the door to his lab and made her way over to Larkson, who was looking at his computer screen.

"What do you need?"

Larkson turned around and looked at her.

"I've been in touch with a friend of mine at site epsilon. They develop vehicles and war machines, as well as large weaponry in general. He told me that a group of five Wyvern class battle mechs were deployed yesterday. I give you three guesses where they're heading."

Markus resisted the urge to curse.

"Theta."

"Bingo. According to my friend, they were sent with orders to destroy it. They weren't told why they were destroying it, just that the council wanted it gone."

Markus crossed her arms and leaned against the desk.

"If they know that the symbiotes are there, why not tell them?"

Larkson frowned.

"My guess is because the council doesn't know, and is trying to cover something up. I knew a guy who worked at site theta. According to him, the containment tubes were designed to to vibrate in such a way that the symbiote would be repelled by them. Also, he mentioned that they had a speciallized defence mechanism that would eradicate escaped symbiotes, even the whole lab if needed. Last recorded video from the place showed that the security system didn't activate. Seems suspicious, no?"

Markus looked at him with a feeling of dread in her stomach.

"You suspect the council of covering something up in site theta?"

Larkson nodded grimly.

"The council is way to secretive about a lot of what happens in the sites. Heck, I would be executed for telling you half of what I told you already. They're hiding something in there."

Markus turned and started walking out.

"I need to check something. Hawthorne's always been tight with the council. He might be in on it. If he is, then my project could be headed in a more disasterous direction than I thought!"

She rushed to her quarters and grabbed her tablet, plugging a device into the top, which lit up blue. The tablet immediately lit up with a screen that resembled that of the main communications terminal within the base. She tapped on a theta symbol that was near the screen and waited anxiously. The device would mask it's hack job for a few minutes, but it that was it. She just hoped someone was on the other end.

She lucked out. The screen lit up with an image of the host of the blue symbiote that broke into the site alpha. They had the symbiote covering their face and there voice was slightly distorted, but it sounded like a girl.

"Who's sending this transmi..."

"Save it. I need to talk to Ethan. It's urgent."

The host seemed to ponder it for a moment before they slid out of view. Ethan replaced them with his mask on.

"I don't believe it."

"Listen, you're all in danger. The council has sent a deployment of mechs to destroy the base. I don't have much time and I doubt you can operate one of the jets, so I'll send you the directions for activating the autopilot."

She sent the data while Ethan started talking.

"You aren't doing this out of the goodness of your heart, doc. What are you after?"

Markus growled in frustration.

"The council is hiding something from us. Something that they destroyed the base to cover up."

"We found out what. It's a message claiming that the 'council' is planning to destroy all life on the planet."

Markus was taken aback.

"You can't be serious! They aren't that stupid!"

Ethan laughed.

"Have I been wrong yet doc? Although, I may have been quick to judge your manufactured symbiotes. So far, they're very well behaved. Ain't that right guys?"

Markus shook her head.

"Just get out of there. Things are about to go deep down into hell and the world will need you at the front, claws drawn."

"I've been hearing about that alot lately. Try not to get yourself killed!"

The transmission shut off. Markus pulled the device and stowed it away. Hopefully Ethan would be willing to help with Hawthorne later. For now, she needed to get back to work.

She grabbed the unfinished armor and kept working. She needed it ready before she could proceed to phase two.

* * *

Ethan couldn't believe that Markus had gone out of her way to warn them about the impending attack. They had been lucky to find that there were indeed intact jets in a hanger on the b5 level. Ana had copied the instructions down and was busy making sure that the jets they had found were fully functional.

Will and Marie were both doing one last scouting trip for the foe that Markus had warned them about. Speaking of them, they both came running back inside, saying that they had seen the mechs closing in. They were a few miles out and moving fast. Ethan nodded and turned as Ana ran back in as well.

"The ship is ready to go! I just need to put the coordinates in and it'll take care of the rest."

Ethan nodded.

"Good. Lets load up some provisions and leave as soon as possible. We want to not be here when the mechs start shooting."

The group nodded and they all started loading up supplies onto the jet.

They worked for about half an hour before they heard a loud boom. The base shivered a little, but nothing like the power expected on the guns those mechs were packing. They heard a high pitched whine and the sound of laughter slowly building as it got closer. They looked down the hall and felt dread fill them as they heard the crackling of electricity fill the air, in addition to the cackling.

Out of the shadows, Sturm floated out on a glider that looked very different from the Gorgon gliders. It had two wings coming off the side, twin rotating barrel missile launchers and plasma cannons. He kept giggling and cackling as he raised a fist, letting it spark with electricity. Things seemed pretty bad. Then they got worse.

With a long, drawn out hiss, Medusa slunk out of the shadows, hanging to the ceiling.

"Well, looks like we're all here! We do so love a party!"

All four symbiotes took up fighting stances.

"Ana, you and Will get the ship and get it ready to fly. Me and Marie will hold them here until you're ready."

Ana shook her head.

"That's my dad. I'm not going anywhere."

"You're the only one here who knows how to get the ship moving. This isn't up for debate!"

Ana cursed and started sprinting for the jet. Will followed behind. Medusa's tendrils all started hissing.

"This time, we're going to be snacking on your innards!"

Ethan shook his head.

"What's with the 'we'? Seriously, it's just wierd."

Medusa snarled.

"It want's what we want, it only wants to do what we wish! And we want you DEAD!"

Medusa leapt forward, shrieking as she did. Ethan dodged back and shot twin webcords at his attacker.

"Well that clears it up!"

Meanwhile, Marie was jumping and leaping around Sturm, slashing at him with her arm-spikes. She had landed a few hits, but his armor only got slightly scratched! She leapt back and charged up a bioelectric blast in her hand. She slid under Sturm's electrified swing and slammed her palm into his knee. Sturm bellowed in pain and kicked her away. She recovered mid-flight and charged, her arm-spikes ready for another strike.

While Marie and Sturm kept fighting, Ethan was cutting his way through a a tangle of spiky tendrils. Both arms were blades and he was shearing through Medusa's barrier of tendrils, slowly but surely making his way towards her. Suddenly, he realized that she was sending tendrils behind him to box him in! He leapt out of the trap and shot a web ball down onto her face, causing her to yell in frustration as she scrambled to remove it. He landed charged her. Dropping into a slide, he webbed her face again and slid between her legs and popped up on the other side before yanking the webline, causing her face to make a large hole in the concrete. She got up and hissed at him before sending her hair-tendrils after him. His hands became serrated claws and he started slashing with all his might!

* * *

Meanwhile, back at site alpha, Hawthorne was just finishing a demonstration of his latest three symbiotes to the council.

"So as you can see, esteemed council, the first symbiote I created is designed to operate as our main infantry, our common soldier if you will. The second is our sniper, capable of launching projectiles from it's fingertips up to a range of up to 400 feet! And finally, our heavy weapons specialist! These are enormous powerhouses, capable of throwing an old semi-truck 360 feet!"

The council seemed very pleased with Hawthorne's work.

"How soon can we begin production?"

Hawthorne's smile widened.

"Whenever the council deems it ready. I also took care of that special addition you asked about."

The council seemed even more pleased.

"Excellent. Begin production immediately!"

Hawthorne bowed and turned to the technicians.

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

* * *

Ana hated being stuck here while her father was being held back by Ethan and Marie. She should be there, helping her friends! But Ethan was right. No one else had understood the instructions that the scientist had sent them. She shook her head. She couldn't dwell on that now. She had a ship to prep!

According to the ship's digital display, it was fully fueled and ready to launch. She started punching in coordinates for the landing site and sent Will to inform Marie and Ethan.

Suddenly, she felt the base shake violently. That could only mean one thing. The mechs had arrived and were beginning their assault.

**So, Goblin Sturm and Medusa versus Ethan and Marie. Who like? I love writing this story.**

**Creativity: If you didn't love writing this story, why would we be here?**

**Author: ... Good point.**

**I don't have anything else. See ya in chapter 29! Let's see how they get outta this one!**


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29, baby! Who else is excited?! I'm excited! So, some time in the future I'm going to be away for roughly a week. I may not be able to upload in that time, but I will if I can! I've been writing a lot of chapters in advance, this one included, and I might have finished the story by the time I'm gone. Another thing I want to make clear is that I will be taking roughly a month's break when th story is done before I start working on and uploading another. Just some time to let my brain accumulate new ideas. Believe it or not, writing this stuff can be hard. I've heard of writers for books and news articles spending a whole day fixated on one sentence!**

**Well, enough jibber jabber.! Here's chapter 29!**

Ethan couldn't believe how strong Sturm was! He hadn't been this resilient or as vicious when they ran into eachother back in that military base! The green was also new. According to his symbiote, it had been there after they both got electrocuted, but it wasn't nearly this bad. Sturm was howling with laughter as he swung wide punches at Ethan, who stuck to dodging and delivering single, powerful blows when he had an opening. So far though, it didn't seem to be doing much good. Sturm had several bruises on his face where Ethan had gotten lucky, but they were already fading.

On the bright side, Marie seemed to be fairing better. Her bioelectric blasts and arm spikes were allowing her to keep pressure on Medusa and stay on the offence. Medusa was still sputtering and shrieking while lashing out with bladed tendrils. Ethan returned his focus and began firing webs at him to slow him down. Then the mountain shook. Everyone stumbled and shifted their foot to find their balance, sans Sturm, who had his glider to adjust for him.

Ethan and Marie looked at eachother, knowing what was happening. Medusa merely dropped to all fours and hissed, her hair tendrils mimicking her in a discordant hiss. Sturm stopped cackling and charged up and electrical blast in both gauntlets. He aimed them at Ethan and Marie and let loose. However, Their symbiote senses alerted them of it before he fired and they dodged, causing both blasts to hit Medusa. She made a noise akin to a cat screaming while dragging it's claws across a chalkboard before the red symbiote launched several tendrils from it's host's back began dragging said host out of sight.

Their success was short-lived however. Sturm had already geared up a second blast and caught them unawares. They both fell to the ground yelling in pain as their symbiotes writhed, sections of them peeling off their bodies and flailing in the air. He sustained the blast until something large collided with him and broke the blast. Ethan and Marie's slowly recovered and they turned to see Will grappling with Sturm. He was pushing Sturm back, but then it went south.

Sturm activated his gauntlets and sent Will sprawling back. He pinned him down with an electrical blast and kept it sustained. Marie leapt forward to fight back, but she met the same resistance as Will. Ethan watched in horror as his friends writhed in pain under the electric blast. He turned and saw Sturm howling away.

Ethan charged, his fingers becoming claws. As he went, white symbiote mass sprouted from his right elbow region and wrapped itself around his forearm, creating a weblike pattern over the usual black and turning his claws white. He swiped and cleaved through Sturm's bicep armor to reveal green, almost scale-like skin. There were four red slices in the green flesh, which started steaming and turning back to normal! Sturm began clutching the wound and yelling in a pained voice.

Ethan looked at his hand and back at Sturm. He leapt up onto Sturm's back and tore off the armor around his upper back before plunging the white claws down into the breach in the armor!

Sturm began howling in pain and began wildly swinging his arms around, trying to remove the source of the agony, but he couldn't reach him. Marie and Will got up and watched in awe as Sturm's body began to change! He grew shorter, thinner and the green vanished to become very pale. Soon, he fell over and Ethan pulled his claw free. There were a few drops of blood, but nothing major. He bent down over Sturm and checked his vitals.

"He's breathing and he has a pulse."

Ethan hefted Sturm over his shoulder and several pieces of armor fell off of Sturm, revealing that he was now unhealthily thin. There was a little blood leaking from his arm and back, which Ethan wrapped a web bandage around.

"Let's get him on the jet and get out of here!"

They sprinted down to the hanger and saw the jet's engines glowing, ready for takeoff. They boarded swiftly and stowed Sturm away in a medical bunk, making sure he was safely secured before strapping themselves in while Ana started the takeoff.

The engines roared and they accelerated out of the hanger, immediately climbing out of the way of a mountain peak. Looking out the window, they could see about half a dozen enormous, bulky, bipedal machines with massive cannons for arms, a mini-rocket silo on the left shoulder, a machine gun turret on the right. Each one stood roughly 35 meters tall.

They watched as the arm cannons began to glow with a purplish blue light before unleashing a blast into the mountain, throwing rocks, snow and ice everywhere. The jet cleared the mountains and started picking up speed. They were headed due south.

Ethan had the symbiote pull away from his face and let out a breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding. He turned to Ana.

"Your dad's in the back. Whatever they pumped him full of is gone, but he isn't looking good."

Ana looked at him briefly before unbuckling and walking to the medical bunks to see her dad. Ethan also got up and went to the supply room before sitting down and webbing himself to the wall so that he didn't get thrown about by the plane. He looked straight ahead and mentally prodded his symbiote.

"We need to talk."

* * *

The council all sat at a semi-circle table, watching a screen displaying a live feed from one of the mechs. Since the mechs were designed to keep symbiotes out, there wasn't any glass on the cockpit that could be broken through. Instead, there were multiple, specially designed cameras that constructed a digital enviroment and displayed it on a large screen inside the mech. There was a radar display on the left that showed the other mechs. Suddenly, a friendly blip appeared on the screen, moving too fast to be a mech. The pilot noticed this and switched to a feed that displayed a 360 degree capture and turned replayed the footage, seeing a jet take off from inside the mountain!

There was a two, maybe three second delay between the council's perspective and the pilot of the mech, and the jet was already almost out of range on their feed. The pilot never managed to take a shot. The head of the council slammed his fist against the table.

"Deploy two hornet drones and take out that damn plane! We can't let them escape!"

The message was sent, but then they recieved unsavory news.

"The plane is equipped with a stealth unit and it's been activated. The drones won't be able to find the plane."

The council all looked at eachother. They were too close. They couldn't be found out now!

"What direction were they headed in?"

A screen popped up.

"Based on the last known position and trajectory of the jet, their flight path would resemble this."

A path was projected onto the screen.

"Are there any places of interest along that flight path?"

The screen flickered for a second before bringing up a satellite image of a large group of people gathered near a large body of water in the south. There were also a large number of water fowl in the area.

"Every year during winter, the humans how live in the wilds all travel south for winter. They usually live more pressed together during this time, so it's possible that they are heading to one of these groups."

The councilman immediately pressed a button on the table in front of him.

"Inform Hawthorne that we want a squad ready to deploy ASAP. Details of deployment shall be given en route to destination."

* * *

Hawthorne was grinning like a madman as he watched a squad of his symbiote soldiers march into a carrier to transport them to the site of their first mission. The squad consisted of five standard soldiers, three heavies, and his latest creation, two frog men. He had made them based on Markus's AS-02. They were able to breathe underwater and had stingers in their wrists that injected a neurotoxin that caused temporary and complete paralysis of the victim.

The squad was being deployed south in an attempt to capture, and/or eliminate the escapees. They all stood impeccably straight and completely silently as they finished their briefing. Once it was over, they marched onto the transport in perfect unison before seating themselves and strapping themselves in for the flight.

Hawthorne's mind turned back to a little side project he had been working on. He had discovered in Markus's notes that she had been considering the idea of making her own 'personal' symbiote for an emergency situation. There were several plans in the folder he had found for various power sets and other attributes that she had considered. She never started actual work on any of them, but Hawthorne had felt giddy at the thought. At first he considered revealing the folder to the council, but he refrained for two primary reasons. First off, he could use it as leverage the next time she was working on something he wanted in on or he just needed something from her. Second, having a personal set of living armor that granted one unthinkable power was just too good an idea to give the council.

He had started his work based on the sequences of AS-01 and built on them, increasing the strength of the symbiote and how it was able to morph it's mass into other shapes. Thus far, he considered the work to be almost done. He just had a few more sequences to adjust before he was ready to craft the symbiote. For purely protective purposes of course.

* * *

Markus resisted the urge to sigh with relief. The pilots of the mechs had stopped site beta to refuel on coolant on the way back to site epsilon, and she had lucked out when she overheard them talking about the escaped plane. That at least meant that Ethan, his friend in blue, and AS-02 and 03 were in the clear for now. As to where they were going, she had no idea. Hopefully she would be able to open a communication line to them to figure that out, but for now she would get back to work on her contingency.

Larkson had told her that the council was starting to maintain an unusual radio silence with the other sites. Markus had started debating whether or not she should inform him of the council's supposed doomsday plan Ethan had warned her about. It would explain why they were so eager to blow site Theta to kingdom come and why they had started maintaining radio silence. They were afraid that someone had discovered their plans, they would want them out of the picture. And if they escaped, they would want to play for time. In that scenario, everything made sense.

Still, even if she told Larkson about council's supposed plans to create the apocalypse, she would risk him locking her up or even being executed! And without assuming that anyone would believe her. For now, she had to remain under the radar, possibly look into it more and finish her contingency. The armor was almost complete. She just needed to finish the armor for the lower left leg, then add the finishing touch.

She had spent a her spare time looking at shipping manifests between the different sites to spot anything unusual. The manifests were accessible by anyone in any form of R&amp;D so that they could get an estimate on when supplies and equipment would arrive. She had noticed that there were several things going to each site in every three shipments that had absolutely no reason to be there. Strange chemicals going to epsilon, mechanical parts going to gamma, all parts or supplies that shouldn't be at whatever site they were going to. In addition to that, there was also a shipment called "Biological Necessities" that kept showing up every six shipments. It was always large and went to every operational site.

It was all strange. She was considering doing another hack job to try and figure out where those supplies were going. Perhaps communications between the council those who were higher up in the main body. If there was something to find, then it was there. Or she could take the more sledge hammer option and hack into the council's list of all active projects. There were plenty of projects she didn't know about, so that wouldn't narrow it down. But something might stick out.

She snapped back to reality when she realized that the armor was finished. She layed it out in front of her to admire it. It was gray and had several black lines of a special modified kevlar to allow even greater flexibility. It was designed to be pressed into position and automatically 'snap' onto the wearer's body, allowing for greater speed when donning it. Thus, she wouldn't have to waste time if there was a break in. It didn't form one giant suit, only covering sections of the body. Still, that wouldn't be an issue if she could complete her plan.

Now she just needed to get to the bio-engineering lab.

* * *

Ethan and his symbiote had been inside the hold for quite a while, having a very long discussion. The others were rather curious as to what was keeping them. They didn't bother interupting though. Ana was a little more preoccupied with her dad. She had gotten her symbiote to form a basic t-shirt, hoodie and sweatpants and had asked her friends to also have their symbiotes transform into ordinary clothing so as to not scare her dad if he woke up. The plane had reached a cruising altitude and she could walk around without using the symbiote to stick to the floor and not get thrown around like ping pong ball in a washing machine. She hoped he would be okay. So far, he was just in a coma. His breathing was calm and he had a normal heartrate. She almost wished he wouldn't wake up for a while. He looked much more peaceful than he did when she, her father and mother lived in the city. This was almost like a well deserved rest.

She heard a heavy iron door open and close and turned to see Ethan walking out of the hold. His face looked incredibly neutral. He sat down in a chair and clicked the buckle before sighing. Ana got up and took the seat next to him.

"What took you so long?"

Ethan ran a hand through his hair.

"Turns out that symbiotes have this sort of evolutionary cycle. Every one hundred or so years, their genetic makeup gets extremely unstable and mutates, thus giving them new abilities or drastically upgrading the ones they already have. Anyway, this mutation can trigger in any number of ways. Response to a new enviroment, pure chance, physical trauma, their all a number of triggers."

Ana was starting to get a sense of what was happening.

"All that experimentation and that electrocution caused your symbiote to mutate."

Ethan nodded.

"Turns out, it developed this ability in conjunction with me. As in, it can't use it without me, and it can't control it at all. I'm the one who controls it."

Ana crossed her arms.

"You're avoiding what this mutation actually is."

Ethan shook his head.

"Because I don't like it. Neither does the symbiote. It just doesn't... feel right whenever I use it."

Ana shrugged.

"You're still dodging."

Ethan threw up his hands in defeat.

"That white symbiote mass is like an antibody against symbiote tissue. It allows me to 'corrode' the cellular bonds between a symbiote and it's host. According to my symbiote, whatever they pumped your dad full of had a lot of symbiote mass in it. Like I said though, it feels unnatural. Like it just shouldn't exist. It makes me feel... wrong. Every time I use it."

He lowered his head and looked at his hand.

"The symbiote wanted to avoid talking about it because it's terrified of what it can do now. We're a danger to the whole group and I suspect that their symbiotes all know it."

Ana had noticed that her symbiote had seemed a little apprehensive around Ethan since they broke him out. She hadn't payed much mind to it, but when they had talked for brief intervals, it always avoided saying anything about him.

She reached over and put a hand on his shoulder.

"That ability saved my dad. You cured him of being that... thing. I think that you're supposed to use that ability to protect people. You've been protecting me and them from all sorts of danger, even when we have our own symbiotes! Maybe you can save people who have been trapped in one of the bad ones all this time."

Ethan smiled a little.

"Someone's optimistic."

She shrugged and lightly punched his shoulder.

"We can't have our fearless leader moping about can we?"

Ethan smiled and punched her back before getting up and walking into the cabin. They were further south now and they could see lots of forests, swamps, even some of the ocean. Ethan pointed to a clearing.

"Land us there. We'll keep going on foot."

Ana set the autopilot to land in the indicate clearing before lowering the ramp. The group hauled the supplies out of the ship and set up a camp. They also set Sturm up on a set of camping mattresses they found in the hold to keep him comfortable. They kept him on the ship, which was temperature regulated, but covered him with a decent amount of blankets for comfort. The stealth device that Ana had found was still in function, so they didn't need to be worried about being found via radar.

After a meal of potatoes and rehydrated meat that they cooked on sticks, they doused the fire and went back on the craft to sleep. It had been quite an eventful day.

**Hmmmm... I might have further to go than anticipated.**

**Creativity: Hmmmmm. I think you should have let me chatter at the beginning.**

**Author: No.**

**So, yeah. I decided to do include a little of Anti-Venom (Ultimate Spider-man version). I thought it was a good idea for how this story is going. So, I guess I'll see you next week! See ya then!**

**Creativity: But I had something funny to say!**


	30. Chapter 30

**Congratulations me! I've written a total of 30 chapters for one story! It feels pretty awesome. Of course, I can't go forgetting everyone who stopped in to have a gander at what I was working on. **

**Creativity: And yet, I see no pay rise.**

**Author: Because some of your pay is deducted for damage repair.**

**Creativity: Oh yeah... right.**

**Author: We still haven't found all the chickadees.**

**Anyway, may I proudly present chapter 30!**

It was late. Really late. Markus knew that. She also knew that if she was caught, the council would order her execution before she was even locked up. And yet, here she was.

It was late at night and Markus was busy hacking into the council's private records, looking for any suspicious projects. If Ethan was right, hopefully the council would have it registered. Fact of the matter was, they needed to provide a reason for all these supplies to be going places that they shouldn't. There were people who's job it was to analyse shipping manifests to ensure there was nothing out of the ordinary. If they noticed supplies going where they shouldn't, the council would be put under scrutiny and people would start investigating. Thus, the council would want to provide a reason for the people in charge of shipping to not see anything out of the ordinary.

The screen flickered, then a long list of projects appeared, sorted by most visited. Sitting at the top of the list was a 'project Ark'. She opened the folder and felt her jaw drop. The council truly was insane.

They were constructing a series of bombs, viruses, generally a varied group of weapons, both organic and artificial, to wipe all life from the planet, including those who worked at all the sites! Once they were done, they were going to fire special rockets to dispence new flora into the world. They also had a machine designed to release fauna back into the wild, which were being kept at various sites around the world.

Markus copied the file to her personal drive and erased all evidence of her entry before withdrawing from the system. She opened one of her personal folders and brought up a screen displaying an image of the armor she had designed as well as several images of DNA strands. She was almost ready.

* * *

Ana's day was going pretty good. She woke up relatively early and checked on her father, who was still asleep, then went out and explored the area around their landing/camp site. She didn't see anything of note. There were a few animals around, but nothing she considered worth a meal. She got back to find everyone outside, working on various things. Marie was preparing breakfast, Ethan was collecting wood for the fire, and Will was covering the plane with leafy branches to disguise it from anyone who might fly over, looking for them.

Ana joined Will in his work. By the time they were called down for breakfast, they had covered roughly a third of the plane. They ate swiftly, then went back to work. All of them worked on hauling leaves and other plantlife over the plane until it was at least half-past noon. From there, they set to work creating a makeshift sledge to haul Sturm with as well as loading up the supplies they would need. According to Ethan, who had travelled through here during a previous year, there was a popular gathering spot a few miles south, by a large stretch of ocean.

Once they were all packed, they set off with their symbiotes in the form of normal clothing. Ethan had a gray hoody with a sideways black spider logo printed over the whole thing, a black tee shirt, black pants and runners with gray laces. Ana had a blue jacket with a black zipper on the front, a black tank top with a blue spider logo, black pants with blue lines, and black/blue checked runners. Will was wearing a grey hoody with an orange zipper and orange spiked stripes running horizontally across his torso that ended before the zipper, an orange shirt, black pants with orange around the pockets, and orange runners. Marie was wearing a white hoodie with blue and green lines on it and green drawstrings, a blue and green shirt, and white runners with dashes of blue with green laces.

They had two duffel bags filled with food, a large backpack filled with water bottles, and Sturm on his sledge. He was being pulled by Will. They travelled for a while, sticking to sandy areas. Ethan had warned them that there were swamps in the area as well as patches of quicksand, but it was fairly easy to avoid if you followed the 'sand trail'. It was actually pretty accurately named. It was an animal trail that decades of wind had filled in with sand from the beaches. They stuck to it, even if it was a little winding. They ended up seeing a few monkeys and even a crocodile! Ethan assured them that it wasn't aggressive. According to him, that croc was usually there. He had heard it from other runners that they called it 'Old Man Croc' because he was there so often.

They travelled for hours and it was becoming sundown when the scent of smoke reached their nostrils. Straining their ears, they could also here voices as well as the crackling flames. Then the second smell reached them. Food. Cooked food.

They sped up their pace and soon made it to the beach, where there were several large bonfires and lots of people. Some were roasting fish on sticks, some where casting lines and nets into the water, others were just talking. They even saw a few people sparring, a short distance down the beach.

They were noticed relatively quickly by two people sitting by the bonfire.

"Pretty late in the season for you all to show up."

Ethan nodded.

"There were... complications. We had to take detours around migrations of Rippers and some new... strange folk."

He wasn't lying exactly. They had seen a few migrating Ripper packs. All of them were heading roughly north. It was true enough to wave off any suspicion.

"Plus, we found him outside the jungle. Figured he just needed some food and rest before he was ready to go."

He motioned to Sturm and the two gave him a quick glance before shrugging.

"It's been changing out there, that much is certain. We saw several symbiotes heading towards the primary hive on our way here."

Ethan suddenly looked interested.

"Our route took us out of view of it. We didn't see any on our way in."

The larger of the two moved back to the log he had been sitting on and grabbed his fish.

"It's growth has increased exponentially. It's getting as big as some of those buildings in the largest of the stone jungles. Something's about to happen."

Ethan and the others looked at eachother.

"Tell me about it..."

They moved down the beach and set up camp in an open patch of sand. Will and Marie busied themselves with using some borrowed axes to chop down four large trees and setting them up like benches around a small fire pit that Ethan and Ana made by digging out a pit in the sand and lining the bottom with stones. Once that was done, Marie borrowed a net and used it to catch several fish for dinner. Ethan and Will cleaned them out and they all roasted their portions on sticks. The fish wasn't actually that bad. They had added a little salt to it and they had also washed the portions in the sea before they cooked them, so it wasn't devoid of flavour.

They finished the meal and got their sleeping arrangements sorted and ensured that Sturm was comfortable before settling in for a well earned rest.

* * *

Markus knew she should have called in sick today. The hack job she had pulled that night had kept her up for a while and now, at half-past noon, no amount of coffee was helping. Larkson had given her a quick assignment that was taking longer than it should have. She wanted to finish early and get some sleep since she needed to come up with a plan to get into the bio-engineering lab. She had seen it on her tour of the site and it had all the standard equipment her old one had. The only thing it lacked was the algorithm she had wrote in order to create her synthetic symbiotes.

She was also still struggling with the decision of whether or not she should tell Larkson about Project Ark. She had carbon copies of every file pertaining to the project, thus she had evidence. Still, she wasn't sure if she could trust him. For all she knew, he already knew about it and was helping to direct it. She had more than a strong suspision that Hawthorne knew about it. He was so tightly ingrained in the council's good books and he already had such a high disregard for his fellow humans' lives that he would have been begging the council to allow him to work on the project.

She shook her head and kept work. At this rate, she figured she would be done in half an hour. She was being asked to catalogue various symbiotes they had seen into various classifications based on powers they had seen up to that point. She had started with her artificial ones and natural ones as classes of their own, with various sub-classes for the various abilities they had seen, such as forming tendrils or bladed weapons, shooting spikes, acid spewing, just to name a few. There was even one that could actually retain a semi-liquid state, allowing it to grow exeptionally tall, or slip through cracks in walls, even if it still had a host.

After a good forty five minutes of more work, she finally closed the report and submitted it to Larkson for analysis and archival while she went back to her room, set her alarm and fell straight asleep.

* * *

Ethan and co had gotten their day off to an okay start. They had woken up at about the same time that everyone else was getting up and they had started going about the day. There wasn't much to do except gather food and water for the day. Even though they had plenty of both already, it wasn't a bad idea to shore up their supplies. Plus, they gave their excess away to some of the others. They all knew that it would pay to be in peoples' good books while they were on the beach.

Marie naturally excelled at gathering fish and crustaceans because of her time spent in the north with her original group of Runners, coupled with her symbiote being naturally at home in water. She didn't acually have it become her costume ever, but it definitely helped with gathering food from the ocean.

Ethan and Ana both focused on gathering fresh water from a lake not too far away. They used the empty water bottles from the previous night as well as a water skin that Ethan had bartered from another runner for one of their pots. They loaded up on water and made their way back to the campsite and spent the rest of the day mingling with the other Runners, trading information and offering exchanges in gear.

So far, all information they had heard regarding the first nest as well as the sudden migration of Rippers wasn't new. They had heard it all before, save a couple of snippets, such as a more accurate guess as to it's size, as well as how it had grown outwards. They did however hear that there were many symbiotes that were making their way back to the primary nest.

Once it was nightfall, they all sat down to eat. Marie had caught an abundance of food which she had cleaned out and already cooked. She had also salted what she didn't roast on the fire. They all sat down and started eating. They were all about halfway through their meal when they heard a loud gasp of air, shocking all of them. Will actually choked a little on the mussle he had been eating. Marie slapped him twice on the back while Ana and Ethan turned to the source of the gasp. Sturm was awake and trying to sit up, rambling about monsters and being trapped. Ethan put a hand on his shoulder and gently helped him up.

"Woah, easy there. You aren't in any condition to move right now. How are you feeling?"

Ana grabbed a piece of fish and tore it to small pieces while also grabbing a water bottle.

"Here, you haven't eaten for days! We managed to get some water into your system, but you need more."

She gently helped him sip from the water bottle before his eyes slowly focused on her.

"I.. Know you, don't I?"

Ana froze dead. She didn't move for several seconds before slowly taking his hand shakily.

"Dad, it's me. It's Ana."

**Hmmmmm... Cliche, or no? Whatever. It's going in the story.**

**Creativity: You know, we actually might be able to squeeze more out of this than we originally anticipated.**

**Author: Don't get to hyped.**

**Anyway, I know this one is shorter, but whatcha gonna do. Writing can be difficult and slowgoing. Anyway, stuff's gonna get really punchy soon.**

**See ya next week!**


	31. Chapter 31

**31\. This is thirty one chapters. I don't think I need to remind anyone that this story is my longest running one yet. It isn't my most successful one, but that's probably because this isn't a "Spider Man" story in the conventional sense. It's not even really a Venom story. Still, where else am I supposed to put this story?**

**Creativity: Make your own site to promote your own stories?**

**Author: We don't have the budget.**

**Anyway, we are approaching the end. I don't know how much more I have left to do, but we are getting there. I hope you see it through to the end!**

**P.S. This update was just fixing an error I found while going back through this chapter to ensure everything lines up properly, that annoyed the ever loving crap out of me when I found it. Maybe I'll do some editing when this story is done and finished, but for now I'm going to keep going until the main story is finished. Sorry if I got your hopes up.**

Ethan was getting worried about Ana. Ever since her father woke up with amnesia, she was getting distant from the whole group, including her father. He had observed Sturm and had discovered that he did remember bits and pieces from his former life and that they were slowly coming back, but that didn't seem to be breaking Ana out of the depression she was sinking into. Probably because Sturm hadn't remembered her yet. He could understand her reaction, but it was starting to turn into an obsession. She spent more time in the jungle, away from the group. Her symbiote may allow her to protect herself, but there was still danger of something stronger attacking her. After all, it was originally thought that the mountains were safe, but they knew how that ended.

He returned to Sturm. He was recovering rather well. He was able to eat and drink by himself now, and he was getting closer to being able to stand up and walk by himself. His memory impairment wast also leaving at a slow, but steady rate. He remembered he was a soldier, that had lived in a city for all his life, and that he had been a part of a pseudo-successful supersoldier program. He had mentioned that there were things that were 'there' in that there were memories that he knew were there, but we just out of his proverbial reach.

He turned to Marie, who had just been diving for the dinner of the night. She had made crab and lobster traps the previous day to shake up their next meal and had put them to the test earlier that day. Judging by the many pincered crustaceans, they had been quite a success. She set them down and grabbed one of the lobsters before driving one of her knives through it's head.

"Ana doing any better?"

Ethan shook his head.

"No. I think she might be getting worse."

Marie bit her lip as she gutted the lobster.

"We need to do something about that. It'll rip her apart if this continues."

Ethan nodded and sat down, pulling out his own knife to clean the lobsters.

"Hey, have you and Will been having those conversations I suggested?"

While they had been on the plane, Ethan had suggested they spend some time talking to their symbiotes, seeing how they respond.

"Yeah, we've been following your advice. They don't talk much. I think it's because they don't really know how to talk. Or maybe it's something else. You heard Medusa back in the mountains. Her symbiote just does what she wants. I don't think Will's and my own are any different. What if we start going crazy like she did?"

Ethan set aside the lobster he had just finished cleaning and started on another.

"Look. Medusa already stunk of crazy the first time I met her. I'll also be the first to admit that I'm not exactly the most stable person on the planet, but I got others around me to whip me back in line should things come to that. I actually was concerned about your symbiotes myself after that run-in with Medusa. That's why I suggested you talk to it. I'm hoping that in time, your's and Will's symbiotes will come to learn that what a host wants isn't always the right thing."

Marie shrugged.

"One can only hope. By the way, where's Will?"

Ethan finished removing the claws from a lobster and started working on the legs.

"I asked him to keep an eye on Ana, as well as bring her back for dinner. Honestly, I think the best thing for both her and Sturm is to be around one another. Who know's, maybe it'll help him recover faster."

Marie made a noise of agreement as she tore an unwanted organ from her current lobster and tossed it into a pile of unwanted offal.

* * *

Meanwhile, Ana was sitting in a tree, watching a nearby pond. She had seen a turtle of some kind go in earlier and she was waiting to see if it came back. She had no idea why she was spending time, waiting to see if a turtle surfaced again, but she didn't really have anything else to do.

Mostly she just wanted to be alone. It hurt her enough that her dad's health had been demolished by whatever cocktail they injected him with, but the amnesia felt like the universe was playing a cruel joke on her. According to the others, he was getting better, but she didn't see it. She had spent a couple of days searching for the siblings, but had no luck thus far. There were alot of people in the area and it would be very difficult to find anyone in this gathering.

"Hey, Marie and Ethan say that dinner's almost ready."

Ana turned to see Will standing on the ground a few feet away. He turned and started walking back to the beach. Ana reluctantly got off her branch and made her way back to the camp site. There was skewered fish and lobster waiting for her. She saw her dad sitting up against a log, his legs still covered in a blanket.

"How are you feeling?"

He smiled a little.

"Improving. Everything is starting to become clear."

Ana smiled a little, but it felt forced. She finished her meal without talking to anyone before cleaning her stick in the fire, thanking Ethan and Marie for their hard work, then went and climbed up a tree that was hanging down, a little ways down from their campsite. She sat there for a while before she felt the tree shift a little. She turned to see Ethan had climbed up and sat down next to her. She started getting ready to jump off when Ethan grabbed her shoulder.

"We need to talk."

She tried to shake his hand off, but it didn't budge.

"Leave me alone."

"Not gonna happen. Like I said, we need to talk."

Ana snorted.

"About what?"

"I get that you're going through a hard time right now, but avoiding your dad and us is pretty counterproductive to him recovering from amnesia. If you want him to remember you, then you need to spend time with him."

She wrenched his hand off her shoulder.

"Don't lecture me about my dad."

Ethan didn't back down.

"I shouldn't have to, but here we are."

She tried to jump off, but he just grabbed her under her arms and yanked her back up on the tree. She was starting to get angry.

"I thought I told you to leave me alone!"

Ethan shook his head.

"What are you hiding from? What are you so afraid of?"

"That he'll remember!" She half-shouted, before she started to break down.

"Back when the city was invaded, I tried to help by taking out invading symbiotes. My dad saw me in my costume and got an accidental shot, causing my symbiote to freak out, showing him who it was underneath the suit. He got so enraged, so distraught, that I forced my symbiote to leave when I made it to the outskirts of that old city. I just can't bare the thought of him remembering what, to him, looked like his daughter being taken by a monster! I can't have him see me like that again!"

Ethan put a hand back on her shoulder.

"I get how hard it is to lose a parent. Maybe not in they way you nearly lost your dad, but I get it. But if you keep going on like this, it'll tear you up inside. Besides, we need you for when things go sour."

Ana wiped away a few tears, but noticed something he said.

"Don't you mean if?"

Ethan shook his head.

"No, when. The symbiote had been buzzing ever so slightly for a day or two now. Haven't you been paying attention to the early warning signal?"

She hadn't, but now if she focused, she could see what he meant. The symbiote sense was definitely reacting to something. It was either a long way off, or very difficult to pin down.

Ethan leapt off the branch and sat down, his back leaning against one of the logs around their fire pit. Marie and Will were both already starting to doze off. Ana dropped down and propped herself up on a log as well.

"Since we've stockpiled enough food for a while, maybe we can spend some time tomorrow looking for the siblings."

Ana smiled a little. It would be quite something to see those two again. Especially with how long it had been since they last saw them. Boy, if they could tell them about their adventures.

The two friends drifted off to sleep. As the fires dimmed around the beach and the ocean retreated, shapes emerged from the water. They peered at the shoreline before diving beneath the ebony water once more.

* * *

Markus was doing her best to not look nervous as she walked down the hall towards the bio-engineering lab. She had arranged to assist in one of their experiments so that she could get inside and enact the final stage of her contingency, but that still didn't shake the nervousness of being caught.

"Excuse me, doctor."

Markus did her best to not look like she had been caught red handed. She turned and did her best to act natural.

"Yes?"

The man who had stopped her didn't seem armed, but you never knew.

"Larkson wants to speak with you."

Markus sighed in her mind as she reluctantly changed course and made her way to Larkson's office. She walked in and suddenly felt like she was in an unsafe enviroment.

"Thank you for coming, doctor."

She smiled and took an offered seat. Hopefully this wouldn't take too long.

"Dr. Hawthorne recently contacted me and told me that it appears that several sections of your previous research seem to be missing. He asked me to inform you and if you had any knowledge as to where they may be located."

Markus fought every impulse to appear frustrated. She had hoped he wouldn't notice the missing files. They were for other specialized symbiotes she didn't have the opportunity to create when she was still the head of her own project. She had taken them with her, hoping that since they were much more advanced than what Hawthorne would have wanted to create, or been capable of creating for that matter, he wouldn't miss them, or at least not care to track them down. She should have known better. Hawthorne horded research he had aquired like a dragon on it's pile of treasure.

"I'm afraid that I can't say I do have any information that would be helpful. Hawthorne or one of his technicians must have misplaced them."

Larkson leaned forward in his chair.

"Doctor, do you know what clause 13 of our organization's scientific accord is?"

Markus nodded.

"The illegal concealment of information is punishable by life inprisonment or execution. Honestly, I never understood the life imprisonment part."

Larkson nodded.

"Indeed. Then you know that, should you be in possession of these documents, you are liable to face the death penalty?"

Markus nodded.

"Indeed I am."

Larkson leaned back.

"I'm glad we understand eachother. You may leave."

Markus got up and left. She needed to act fast. She was reasonably sure that Larkson didn't suspect her of stealing information, but she knew that Hawthorne wouldn't give up that easily. He would call for a search of her workstation, private quarters, anywhere that she might hide the documents. Not that he would have any luck. She had made her use of them and destroyed them. All that was left was a brand new document that was dated to a fair time after her departure. Now all that was left was to enact the final stages of her plan.

She checked that the armor was secure under her lab clothing. She had the special drive in her pocket and a document folded up in her pocket. Hopefully, she would be able to pull this off without arousing suspision.

She pushed open the door to see that the team was finishing the final preparations. The team in question was attempting to create a predator for symbiotes. Today they were testing a bacteria they had designed.

Markus looked around the lab, seeing that all the nessessary equipment for her contingency was indeed here. Now all it needed was the right script to run. She turned the drive over in her pocket. She would only get one shot at this.

The team had greatly benefitted from her discovery of cloning symbiote tissue. One of Hawthorne's creations had been shipped over for a test. When she saw the sequences that he had sent over, she was revolted by how sloppy they were! They were purely functional and even that term was extremely loose! He had essentially created a half-living attack blob!

Markus shook her head in disgust at Hawthorne's defacing of her work and watched with concealed glee as the team introduced the bacteria. The experiment was a success at the start, but the bacteria colony died before it could finish eating the symbiote. The blob edges of the inanimate blob had calcified into a ugly, hardened substance. The team had mixed reactions. Mainly it was a case of the room being split between the glass being half empty and half full. Markus watched as the scientists began to shuffle out and plugged the drive into the main terminal. Immediately all cameras in the whole wing went down! Not that anyone knew of course. She had rigged it to replay the footage of the team leaving from a previous date and then to play a loop of the empty room.

She waited until everyone was gone and locked the door before withdrawing the tube of symbiote mass she had smuggled into the base into one of the machines. She rushed to a moniter and initiated an automated program which began resequencing the mass into her magnum opus. This would be her finest work yet.

The process took less than a minute. When it was finished, she drained the new symbiote, dark purple with hints of black, into a smaller, much more easily concealed tube that she then concealed in a compartment on the chestplate of the armor. She withdrew the drive and wiped all evidence of her work from the computer's record before leaving, making her way out of wing before the cameras turned back on. It was a clean break. Hopefully.

* * *

Ethan and co had collectively decided that the universe was a very discourteous bastard. They knew that they wouldn't be able to enjoy some peace for very long, but nothing was more bothersome than a midnight ambush. Some people just needed sleep!

They had woken up to hear people screaming and running away from some unknown attacker, and immediately climbed into trees to avoid being stampeded, taking Sturm with them. They could see that people were running from the opposite direction and that they were trying to go into the jungle, but came running back out. They couldn't see what was causing it until they saw a dark shape moving across the beach. Ethan took advantage of the dark to let the symbiote form part of his mask to give him his night vision before he muttered a string of curses.

There were several symbiotes stalking towards the cornered crown from all sides. He could make out about a dozen on their side and he assumed as many on the other side. Scanning the trees, he could make out several other ones that were much more lanky than the other ones. These one's were keeping their distance and had their palms outstretched. He turned to the others.

"I'm going to flank behind and take out the ones in the trees. Marie, you get to the water and prepare to ambush them. Will, you start taking out the one's on this side. Ana, you get your dad to higher cover and try sniping a few of them."

Sturm didn't seem to notice. He was in a state of semi-shock as his eyes frantically started searching for the enemy. Ana gently lifted her dad as her symbiote covered her. She made for the higher trees while the rest of the team departed for their appointed sides to start attacking.

The night was going to be a long one.

**And so begins the battle for the beach! Why does that sound like the name of a cheesy beach movie? **

**Creativity: With our luck, it will be soon if it isn't already.**

**Author: Don't jinx it.**

**See ya next week!**


End file.
